New Orleans
by Readergirl37
Summary: Elena is going into a coma in two days. She calls Elijah. They make a deal. Elijah/Elena and Klaus/Caroline. Multi chap
1. Deal

AN: All of the Originals are alive in this, and Hayley and Tyler are a couple somewhere. They won't be mentioned in the story. I hope you like this, Angela.

* * *

He's on his third drink of the morning, his brother notes.

"Something on your mind?" Klaus asks. Elijah finishes his drink before he answers.

"Elena Gilbert has two days left to live her life." He says, his voice is rough and their sister chooses that moment to enter the room.

"Elijah." She says and he turns his head.

"You look like shit." She says. He closes his eyes briefly before agreeing with her.

"What do you mean?" His brother presses. Elena is a vampire, Elijah had helped her with her transition. There's no way she could be dying.

"Bonnie Bennett is in a coma. Her life is somehow tied to Elena's. When Bonnie is to wake, in two days, Elena will slip into a coma until Bonnie is dead." He considers pouring himself another drink.

"She must have pissed off a witch." Rebekah points out the obvious.

"I'm going to kill them, whoever they are." Elijah sighs.

His phone vibrates, and he takes it out of his pocket. His eyes widen, and he leaves the house in a flash.

* * *

"Elena." He answers the call.

"Elijah, I know you're probably busy." She begins. Her voice isn't as strong as it is usually. It makes him want to break something. He's not in love with her, he's told himself a few times before. She's just beautiful and he holds a certain fondness for her.

"I'm not, Elena, are you okay?" He interrupts. He has to know. She sighs.

"No, I'm not, Elijah. I can't be your ally for-a long time. I'm going into a coma in two days and I haven't told anyone else this, but I'm scared." Her voice shakes a little.

"What are you planning to do with your body?" He asks. She could desiccate if someone neglects her.

"I have no idea." She admits.

"Would you care to make a deal with me?" He asks. Elena agrees.

He begins to lay out terms.


	2. Klaus

"Look, Elena is probably making a deal with your brother. Wherever she goes, I'm going. I'm just giving you a heads up to get two rooms ready." She sighs.

"You can't wait to see me, can you?" He teases and she groans.

He tells her that he'll text an address for her to go to. New Orleans is not under his control, not yet. He doesn't want her taken hostage by witches or something equally irritating. She tells him that she has packing to do, and that she'll see him soon. He tells her that he can't wait.


	3. Olive Branch

Elijah spends the next hour arranging things, it will be easier to catch a flight that night than to drive for several hours to get to Mystic Falls. He schedules a meeting for a nurse for Elena, and hires her, and has another drink before he packs.

* * *

"Do you even know if you will be able to communicate with her? We could just kill the Bennett witch." Klaus offers.

"Niklaus, I will not cause another death in that family. Also, I find it unlikely that you would try to do so as Caroline will be here with Elena for the next few decades. I assume you'll want to be on speaking terms for the duration of Elena's coma." Elijah says as he checks his watch. His brother rolls his eyes.

"When are you leaving?" Klaus asks.

"An hour and ten minutes." He says, and his brother looks thoughtful.

"I'll see if I can find where Kol is. Knowing him, he's with some of those witches." Klaus makes an irritated noise.

"An alliance with the witches of this city would not be a bad idea and you know this. Kol extending an olive branch is model behavior for once." His older brother points out.

"I'm sure that's not the only thing he's extending." Klaus mutters and Elijah closes his eyes.

"I do not want to think of that. Please refrain from doing that in the future." He says, and Klaus lets out a small laugh.

* * *

To think he wanted his family together and alive for centuries-he wants to tell his younger self to enjoy the silence and peace. He has none here. But as he looks at his younger brother, he can't bring himself to regret it.


	4. Dinner

"Our older brother fancies the doppelganger, doesn't he?" Kol asks at dinner. Rebekah nods.

"Just like you chase witches, Elijah falls for the Petrova doppelgangers. Like how Nik falls for blondes." She says before taking a sip of wine. She and Kol enjoy the hybrid's irritated look. He begins to explain the arrangement and the coma Elena will fall into. The table is silent for a moment, Rebekah isn't Elena's biggest fan, but Elena did save her life once. They're even, and she wouldn't wish that on anyone. At least when she woke up, she knew Nik was alive. She'll feel guilt over her friend for at least the decade after.

"Nik." Kol says suddenly, and his older brother's head turns to look at him.

"Didn't you put that vampire a few weeks ago into a magical coma?" He asks and they can see the gears moving in Klaus's head.

"I'll have Elijah see if he can get into his head when he returns." Klaus is good at dream manipulation, but Elijah had honed it to an art. If anyone could do it, it'd be his older brother.

"Good idea." Rebekah compliments before she finishes the rest of her wine.


	5. Park

He texts Elena when he arrives in Mystic Falls, he settles into his room in the now empty house Klaus had spent so much time on.

He's not going to deprive Elena of her last hours with her loved ones.

* * *

He just needs to know where she is the next day, he doesn't know when she'll fall into the coma. She tells him she's at home, and Jeremy and Alaric are asleep. She's already said her goodbyes to the Salvatores, Stefan had dragged Damon to Italy with him a week before. He asks if he can come over, the disappearance of the Salvatores is of interest to him. She agrees.

* * *

He doesn't knock, she opens the door when he steps onto her porch.

"Can we go somewhere to talk? I don't want to wake up Jeremy or Ric." She says and he nods.

"Of course." His voice is quiet. She likes his tie. A splash of color in his usually dark wardrobe. She had almost forgotten how good he looked in a suit. Almost.

* * *

They're in the park, Elena's choice.

She begins to explain everything. Someone had threatened Bonnie's family, one of her cousins. So she had accompanied her to take care of it, and they pissed off the wrong witch. Bonnie's cousin was fine. She and Bonnie weren't. The Salvatores had left because she wasn't interested in either of them. Stefan had changed and so had she. She didn't want him anymore, she hadn't for a long time. Damon had wanted too much from her. She could have fallen in love with him, but he was too fiery, too reckless. There was a difference between heat of the moment things and killing someone every time things went wrong. She couldn't do it. According to Caroline, who had seen them off, Stefan wanted to return to their roots. The Salvatores had family history in Italy. Caroline was packing, and had promised to stay with her as much as possible. While living her own life. She made Caroline promise to visit her mom, and live. Just because Elena will be stuck in New Orleans doesn't mean her friend has to be.

She admits, while moving to a park swing, that she can't sleep. She's scared that she's wasting time. She barely has any left. She's written letters and letters and even more letters to everyone. Especially Bonnie, she's arranged for almost everyone's birthdays for a few decades, she tells him. She frowns when she tells him that she didn't know if he celebrated his birthday. He sits on the swing next to her. He tells her that he doesn't. She looks sad instead of relieved.

"Do they all just fade together? After so long?" She can't imagine birthdays not being important. His eyes are open as she stares into them.

"Only if you let them." He answers honestly. He hadn't seen the point to it. They're quiet for a moment.

"It's just a little crazy. I mean, I'll probably be in a coma for longer than I've been alive. I mean, I hope Bonnie has a long life, but that sounds a little terrifying." She tells him. She tries to downplay it. But being stuck in her head, unable to move or feel or experience anything is too scary.

* * *

She swings a little bit, her converse pushing against the dirt. The silence is comfortable, he remembers a few times before where it had been like this. She lets the swing stop of its own accord. A warm night breeze comes through, moving her hair, but not her thoughts.

"You can enter dreams." She says. It's not a statement, she's seen him do it before, he had taught her. She had let him into her head, and it had been very personal. They have a higher level of trust because of it. He wonders if she's thinking the same thing he is.

"If you can, I'd like you to try and see if you can talk to me. While I'm not awake." She takes a deep breath to steady herself.

"I trust you with my head. I always have. Just, I'd like you in there. If I can talk to you guys, I would want to. At least, manipulate a dream or two." She tries to be lighthearted. This isn't lighthearted, not by a long shot, but he nods.

"I give you my word that if I am sure I can do so without harming you, I will." He says and she relaxes.

* * *

"Do you want to go get ice cream?" He asks, and she nods.

"And maybe coffee. Not in that order." She says and he nods. She looks like she could use some. He remembers nights where they'd go out for ice cream to celebrate victories and accomplishments when she had been brand new. She had always seemed happier, and there was a place that was open twenty four hours. She picked a new flavor almost every time.

"I still have a few flavors to try." She says, and grins.


	6. Not A Goodbye

AN: Also, raspberry ice cream because I'm a raspberry addict when I have to write these two.

* * *

He tells her of New Orleans, and of his brother's determination to rule over the city, in the almost empty house of his brother's design. She spends a few minutes walking around, he follows.

"I told you your mother wanted to kill you, right here." She says and he lets out a laugh. He remembers that. She licks at her raspberry ice cream as she enters another room.

He keeps her awake, like he had promised, midnight passes, and they are both relieved. She has a few more hours. So he entertains her and they catch up until sunrise, then they talk of plans and she tells him Caroline is going to stay in Mystic Falls for a few days. She won't be coming with them. He nods. His brother had told him.

"I should go wake up Jeremy and Ric. Spend a few last hours with them. I'll have Jeremy call you when Bonnie wakes up."

She gets out of the chair she had been sitting in for a few hours.

"Elena." He says, and she stops. He moves forward, and she recognizes it as him asking if she wanted a hug. They rarely hugged, he has always seemed too stoic for such, but he could always tell when she needed one. She sinks into it, Elijah is strong and she can be weak while he isn't.

* * *

"Don't go after the witch. She'll kill Bonnie. She told me if I tried to get out of it, like turning Bonnie, then we'd both die." She murmurs.

His hug would hurt if she was human, but she isn't, and when he loosens his grip a little, she just increases hers.

"I'm sorry." She apologizes, but she knows he'll keep her safe, it's why she called. Petrovas were never really safe. She might be the exception in a few hours.

* * *

She doesn't know how long the hug is, but she knows that she needed it. Elijah is familiar, she loses herself for a little while with his arms around her.

Eventually, she lets go and he lets her move away. He already has her eyes memorized, but he doesn't know when he'll see them open again, so he stares. She doesn't mind.

"I'll see you again, soon. This isn't a goodbye." She promises.

She hates goodbyes.

"No, it isn't." He agrees.

* * *

He closes his eyes when she turns her back. He doesn't want to watch her go.


	7. Not Right Now

He checks on the car he's arranged to have delivered to Mystic Falls instead of thinking of other things. It will be there in a few hours. He decides to sleep until then, his phone is loud enough to wake him up, should someone need him.

* * *

She's back when he's making coffee.

"You were out?" He asks. He hadn't checked, but Elena's an adult. Technically. He still sees her and Jeremy as kids. They aren't, he reminds himself as she pours a cup of coffee. She pushes hair out of her face.

"Yeah. Elijah. He got into town last night, and everyone else was asleep. He helped me stay up. We talked, a little." She tells him, pouring sugar and creamer into her cup.

"That's good." He says, as Jeremy walks down the stairs.

She's explained it, that Elijah will keep her safe. She doesn't want to be a burden to them, and they have their own lives to go live.

"Hey." Her brother says.

"Hey." She smiles.

Bonnie is on Caroline's couch. She'll come over in a few hours with her, and they'll play the waiting game. Elena can feel herself slowly getting tired. The thought makes her take a gulp of steaming coffee. No, she's not going to sleep. She only has a few hours.

Jeremy hugs her. She hugs him back, he needs comfort and she's going to give what she has left.

The hug is even longer than the one she had with Elijah, and she doesn't mention the future.

* * *

It's not what anyone wants to hear, not right now. She proposes that the day be lighthearted. She suggests a movie marathon and the two men next to her agree to it. They pretend the tension in the air isn't thick, that the atmosphere isn't heavy.

They laugh a little too hard at lines they know already, but to them, it's perfect.


	8. Pizza

It's a few movies later that Caroline shows up with Bonnie, an advertisement plays as Elena tries to make popcorn.

Elena helps her put Bonnie in the guest bedroom. She moves her bags from her room to the living room. The house is Ric and Jeremy's until she wakes up, she had to compel a lawyer for that to become legal, but they were going to use it more than she was. Caroline sits in the new armchair Damon had gifted Ric with, something about breaking his arm while they were drunk was scrawled on the note attached when it had been delivered. Elena didn't ask. Jeremy didn't even want to.

* * *

It's not until they order pizza for dinner that she asks for thirty minutes alone. They all agree, on the condition that she help them eat pizza, they ordered too much. So she sat, and memorizes it. She soaks up the attention and the night, the noise. The feeling of unity. The warmth. She memorizes the sound of their laughter, their voices. All carefully organized in her mind. She escapes, and goes to the cemetery. She talks to the people she won't even have a chance to talk to. Her aunt, and her parents, both sets. It's not quite thirty minutes yet, and she takes this feeling in. It's dark, and cold. A little lonely. But at least she isn't in the ground. She returns back to her house when it her phone says that it's been thirty minutes exactly.


	9. Eleven

It's four cups of coffee and two blood bags later that it becomes eleven. Elena is carefully waiting. She suspects Bonnie will wake up at midnight. Her limbs feel heavy. She begins to talk of heavy things, last moments for decades and that Caroline has most of the envelopes. She reminds Jeremy to call Elijah when Bonnie wakes up. She tells him to live his life, she'll be proud of him no matter what. There's a last hug, from Jeremy. He hugs her so tightly that Caroline thinks he'll break her ribs. They've always been close, he's always had Elena. He's got to fly the nest soon, she tells him. He nods. She hugs Alaric and talks to him, telling him that he's the best guardian she and Jeremy could have hoped for, among other things. Caroline is last because she already knows so much. She already knows everything. Elena feels her limbs turn into lead, as she hugs Caroline. Eleven fifty eight passes, and then her eyes close, her body relaxes against Caroline. She calls Elijah single handedly, and Jeremy checks on Bonnie.


	10. Drive

Bonnie immediately asks where Elena is. She walks with wobbly legs to see Caroline holding her.

"Can she hear me?" Bonnie asks.

"She's already in the coma. When you woke up, she slipped into it." Jeremy says and she looks at them.

"So what are we going to do? She's going to be in there for a while." Bonnie says, and everyone but the witch exchange guilty looks.

"She's going to New Orleans with Elijah. I'll join her in a few days." Caroline says and Bonnie shakes her head.

"Elijah? Seriously?And New Orleans? Where Klaus is?" Bonnie asks.

"Elijah is going to keep her safe. It's not that bad. Elena worked this all out while you were in a coma. Here." Caroline hands her the letter Elena wrote for when Bonnie woke up. She's still holding Elena. She can't let go of her.

"Bon, have you ever seen the way she looks at Elijah?" Jeremy asks, praying Elijah isn't on their street yet.

"Yeah." Bonnie admits.

"He looks at her the same way. They have something between them. She wouldn't ever hurt him, he wouldn't hurt her. I think she called it an understanding."

"What if someone else wants to hurt her?" Bonnie asks, lifting her eyes from the letter.

"Which is why I'll be there in a few days. I'll be living with her. Bonnie, we have this planned out. Just let it happen." Caroline insists, as they hear the doorbell ring.

"I will be visiting you two." Bonnie says, it's not negotiable.

"Well, duh! You're my best friend too. We just need you to understand this." Caroline says, and Jeremy goes to get the door. Ric offers Bonnie pizza when she admits that she's hungry. He doesn't want to see Elena leave. Jeremy watches Caroline carefully transfer his sister from her arms to Elijah's. While he's putting Elena in the passenger seat, Caroline puts her things in the trunk.

She doesn't need to tell him to take care of her. She just tells him she'll see him in a few days in New Orleans, when the dust settles and it's all okay in Mystic Falls. He nods, and she squeezes Elena's hand. She wonders what's going on in her head, but she's the one to shut the car door. He gets into the car, and Caroline watches him drive out of sight, because it's not a goodbye. It isn't.


	11. Mind

He drives, and he talks, telling her that it's likely he'll be able to talk to her, in her mind. If nothing else, she can likely hear him as he talks, he's done some reading on comas. Extensively. Plane rides were quite boring without something to do. He wonders if she'd be surprised that he does his best to keep up with science, even though his existence is because of magic-science is still fascinating. He's seen theories and ideas from centuries, this is one of the best ages for easy research. Except when it came to obscure texts or magic, of course. He drives, for a few hours straight. He's glad he took that nap. It's been eight hours so far, of driving without stopping.

* * *

She's walking through her mind palace, it's easier somehow, to do it now. She's stuck in the room filled with her family. Jeremy is making bad jokes, and Caroline is laughing, Ric is laughing, it's warm. She doesn't know how long she's there until she hears a voice. The room is frozen, and she walks out, closing the door. She focuses on it. It's Elijah. Something about entering the city. She remembers that she has other things to work on. She's going to be here for a while.


	12. Thank You

AN: I did mention a mind palace, and I had originally planned to have Elena have one while I was plotting this. It would make sense for her.

* * *

He sets her in the room next to his, the one next to Elena's is Caroline's. Conveniently near Klaus's, but he doesn't say anything.

Her things are brought up to her room, and he notices something sticking out of her pocket. It's addressed to him. One of the letters she had mentioned. He begins to read, as Klaus carefully knocks on her open door.

He looks up, he's finished with the letter. He puts it in a pocket in his suit.

"Niklaus." He addresses.

"I have good news for you. Remember that vampire I almost killed? He has a witch friend who froze him into a coma. If you can get into his mind, you can get into Elena's." Klaus is grinning, and his brother wonders why.

"You're going to have to apologize to them." He points out.

"Already done. So many people can be easily bought these days. You have an hour before she reverses the spell. Here's the hospital address." The hybrid says, and Elijah wonders if he's doing this because of him, or a certain blonde vampire.

"Thank you, Niklaus." He says, and he's gone.


	13. Hospital

The witch is sitting next to the vampire in question.

"You're Elijah." She says and he nods.

"I apologize for my brother." He says, and she nods.

"I'll let you talk to him if you can get the wood in his chest from killing him." She says, and he nods. Of course his brother neglected a tiny detail. Classic Niklaus. He carefully chooses a medical instrument, he's been to medical school a few times just to learn. It's over in a few seconds, and they both see the vampire's chest heal.

"Thank you." The witch says, still sitting in one of the hospital chairs.

"You're welcome. I'm going to try to enter his mind." He says and she nods. She assumes it's similar to magic, the level of concentration. He takes the man's hand, a physical connection helped.

* * *

He carefully moves past the defensive barriers, he gently tells him that his friend had sent him. It's easy after that, and he finds him in the darkness. He tells him that he'll be woken up soon, the splinters in his chest are out. His friend was worried he'd injure himself if he tried to move. The younger vampire nods and thanks him. They both hear a voice, and focus on it.

"I'm giving you a minute to get out." A female voice says, and Elijah carefully slips out of his mind. He lets go of his hand. He watches her undo her magic, there's a difference between unraveling and breaking. He asks her, once her vampire friend is wrapped around her, if it's possible to do either, if two people are bound. The witch looks intrigued, but tells him she's never heard of such a spell. He tells her it was just curiosity, he'd never had the opportunity to be in a coma patient's head before. He thanks them both for the opportunity, and says it was a spell in the process of being made. The witch seems to accept his answer, and he leaves the hospital.


	14. Mind Palace

AN: Dark Paradise is the song for this chapter, also I am so sorry, but this one or the next one will be the last chapter until Sunday night/Monday morning. I'm working long shifts the entire weekend and my free time will be sleeping. Sorry guys!

* * *

He asks them all to leave, Klaus ushers Kol and Rebekah out for lunch. He's going to be going deep into Elena's mind, he can't have any distractions. Even Rebekah speaking could break his concentration. He's never done this in a loud environment. He wouldn't want to anyway.

She is going to have an IV tonight, to keep blood in her system, but she doesn't right now, so he takes both of her hands, closes his eyes and focuses. His mind is blank. He is completely vulnerable at this moment, he isn't using any of his senses. He slows his breathing, it's easier to enter someone's head when you're synchronized, same heartbeats, same breathing, same frame of mind.

He carefully reaches into her mind, to find a wall. He knows how many walls she puts up while she's sleeping, he's the one who taught her how, but these are strong.

"Elena." He hears himself say, he's never been sure if he's speaking physically as well, but the wall has a door now.

"It's me. I'm here to talk." He speaks slowly, she'll recognize his voice if it is unhurried.

The wall disappears, and then he sees another, briefly. He watches a few more disappear, and then he's almost blinded by the light.

* * *

He sees a house. It reminds him of the Gilbert house in Mystic Falls, and the lake house. There's other elements he can't place. He hadn't taught her this. He feels a rush of pride before he remembers to focus. Elena is somewhere in this building. The front door opens when he tries it, he's strong here. he carefully walks in, careful to shut the door quietly. He wanders through rooms, he can't hear Elena over the music that's playing.

* * *

He sees doors that he will not enter, she has an entire hallway of rooms of just people. Caroline has her own room, he carefully opened the door to be hit by a wave of memories. Years of them. He carefully shuts it. He's almost curious about his room, he also felt her feelings towards Caroline. It's a few more hallways, and a staircase before the music is quieter, he can hear breathing. A few more doors, everything in here is carefully labeled. He takes in the furniture and fixtures, it's heavily influenced by her home in Mystic Falls. It all has meaning. Everything in mind palaces has meaning, and he wants to spend a few hours asking her to give him a tour, but it is her mind, and he is not entitled to it. He carefully selects a door with no label, the door looks like a replica from the room she had in Mystic Falls. All of the others are slightly off. He opens it, and finds Elena in her room. Down to the comforter covering her, she's in her room as he's seen it. Even her books are in exact order.

* * *

He doesn't touch her, he can't touch anything. He can try to wake her with his voice, but if she's too deep, he can't.

"Elena." He says, his voice is quiet, and he says her name a few more times. She opens her eyes and sits up. She's rubbing the sleep out of her eyes when she tells him it's fine to sit on her bed. So he does.

"We're in New Orleans?" She asks. He nods. She gives a hesitant smile.

"And you can talk to me? This isn't a dream?" She asks, and he nods again.

"Indeed. Can you dream in here?" He wonders if it's like being daggered. She gives him a full smile for a moment.

"If I unfocus enough, it's just nonsense dreams. I spent the car ride aware of you talking. You didn't have the radio playing. I was busy in here, but I could hear you if I focused." She says. Interesting.

"It's only been a day." He says and she gets out of bed, and moves to her desk. A calendar. She marks off a few days.

"I'm going to see if I can keep track." She says. It's a good idea.

"Where did you get the idea for a mind palace?" He asks.

"I was researching and came across it. I didn't want to float around in the darkness. If I step out, it feels like it takes hours to come back." She admits. He notes the covered windows. It makes sense.

"Thank you." She says, and he gives her a slight nod.

"You're welcome." He says and she reaches, he's aware of her pointer finger coming towards him. Her finger comes into contact with his arm.

"You're solid in here." She notes. The music downstairs stops.

"Interesting." He says and she nods.

They stand for a moment, before they hear something, she closes her eyes and it grows louder.

"It's been an hour, how long can talking take?" That's Kol, they recognize. Elijah wonders if he means him, or Niklaus.

"I think I should go." He says and she sighs.

"Can you come back later? I'll even leave the walls down." She says hopefully.

"I will return." He promises, and they hear something break.

* * *

He carefully walks out of the palace, and through the walls, the doors are open on each one. They close after he moves through, and when he reaches the last one, he carefully pulls himself out of Elena's mind. His hands let go of hers when he feels himself back. He blinks.


	15. Plan

AN: I'm very sorry, dear readers, but this is the last thing you'll get out of me before Sunday night.

* * *

"I hope you had a very good reason for taking me out of Elena's head." He warns as he goes to see what his siblings are arguing about. They stop when they see him.

"Did you talk to her?" Rebekah asks.

"I did." He says and Rebekah grins. That's a lot less lonely than being daggered, then.

"Good. Nik wants us to go to some treaty dinner with the witches tonight. They want to be equal, and they want protection from vampires or something." Rebekah isn't all that interested, but Nik told her she had to go. United front and all that. He raises an eyebrow.

"They want protection from vampires, and they're going to have dinner with us?" He inquires. Kol nods. It's an intriguing idea, and he asks when the dinner is. It's at seven, according to Kol. Elena won't be alone in the house then, he relaxes. Her nurse will be in, making sure she's fine.

"We could take down Marcel with this alliance." The hybrid makes an appearance.

"Are you ready for a war?" Kol asks.

"With you, Kol, I think it'll just be a single battle." He messes up Kol's hair like he saw an older brother do to his younger brother in a movie once. Kol grins.

"Excellent." He says. He likes this much better than his box. He feels loved, not that he'll ever admit it, but he enjoys their family unity. It's been a few centuries since they were almost all a united front. Save Finn, but he's in some country with Sage. They wanted some time alone. Kol is just glad they're not being subjected to watch them being a couple. Finn was a sap when with her.

"What's our game plan?" Rebekah asks, and the Originals settle at the breakfast table to talk.


	16. Sleep

AN: I am so tired it's ridiculous, but this chapter is for you guys.

* * *

When she sees him again, it seems like it's been ages. She can wear his voice, from her mind palace, asking her to let him in. She pictures him, and the walls, waiting. She collapses them, she'll raise them again when he's with her. She hears his footsteps up the stairs. A little slower than usual. He's tired, she recognizes. She makes her bed expand, so he can sit on it without her without being too close, if he wanted that. He's not wearing a suit jacket, and he takes off his shoes before he sits next to her. He says hello, and she tells him it's okay to relax. His back is on her bed before she can adjust her position. She raises the walls.

* * *

He tells her of the IV in her arm, and her wet hair, and about a meeting with a coven that was interested in righting the power imbalance. Klaus didn't want to rule with an iron fist. He just wanted to rule, he explains along with the meeting. Once he's done explaining that, and his day, she asks him something. It's a quiet request, and he feels his face soften a little at it. She wants him to go do what he needs to do in the real world, and then fall asleep in her head with her. It's not something new to them, it's the first time she's had a mind palace for it though. He used to do that in the beginning days, when he would wake up to the sounds of her nightmares, gasping and choking for air. She had those for a long time. He'd finally offered to keep her dreams safe, his walls were too old and high for her to ever see something she wasn't supposed to, like his feelings for her or his memories. They just had happy dreams. She needs that, she needs the familiarity, at least right now. He agrees, asking her to keep her walls down until he gets back. No one else in the house wants to be in her head, he assures her. Not unless she wants them there. She tells him to go deal with the real world, she'll wait. And he disappears, and she'll have to rearrange her Elijah room a little, when he's away for a longer time.

* * *

He's back faster than she imagined, faster than she had dared to hope, but he's in pajamas. His suit like pajamas, she had given him so much grief for them, and he had always gone with it good-naturedly. She adjusts the light.

"Elijah?" She asks, when the comforter is covering them both.

"Hmm?" He asks.

"I don't think Caroline knows how to enter minds. You might have to teach her when she gets here." She yawns and he tells her he will. He picks a dream scenario, and she closes her eyes and lets his imagination blend into hers.


	17. Bye For Now

He wakes up first, Elena is partially against him. He doesn't remember everything when he blinks, but Elena is the only person who would be this close to him. Especially while sleeping. He inhales, and smells her perfume. He closes his eyes. It all feels real, the comforter is warm and heavy, he can feel the pillow under his head. It's all just in his mind. But that doesn't make it any less real, he knows as Elena yawns.

"Thank you." She says, and he nods.

"Of course." It's the least he can do, keeping her company is easy as breathing to him.

He's about to say something else, but they hear a beeping noise, she's almost tempted to close off the sound, let nothing from the real world reach them, but Elijah needs to leave. She can't keep him with her, despite how much she wants to. He looks regretful as he sits up, and she shakes her head to assure him. She has things to do, so does he. Whenever he can come next is fine. She tells him to remind her to let her walls down before he tries to enter again, she'll have them up while she's working. He nods, and she grins at him. She'll see him soon.


	18. Movie

She's had to spend four hours of her life convincing Bonnie that Elena is safe. She actually calls him, when Bonnie worries that Klaus could be harming her. She doesn't mention that she's thought Klaus wouldn't hurt her best friend again for her sake. She doesn't know what she feels towards him, but it reminds her of a dry cake mix. There's things she can pick out and feel, but she can't separate any of the feelings out to see what they are. She knows that there's a little bit of hate in there, like she knows there's flour in her mother's favorite chocolate cake mix. But just like cake mix, there are other things in her feelings for him that she can't put a name to. Maybe she'll google the hard to pronounce names when she's in the same state he is.

* * *

Elijah answers, his tone is polite. Caroline takes the phone from Bonnie and puts it on speakerphone. She asks how Elena's doing and he tells her that she has an IV for blood, and that he was able to talk to her. He tells her that Elena asked him to teach Caroline when she arrived. Bonnie looks at her, a little confused. Caroline tells her that only Elena knew she couldn't enter dreams. Neither of the Salvatores had taught her, and Elena had apologized that she couldn't teach her either. She made a better student on the vampire stuff. Bonnie looks at her with interest, and Elijah told them that she was okay. He tells them he has to go, and Caroline says goodbye and hangs up quickly.

* * *

It's another few hours convincing Bonnie that she wants to spend decades with Elena, while she's comatose.

They can talk to her, Caroline points out. Bonnie feels the sting of being excluded. She's not a vampire. She decides then that she will find a spell that will let her talk to Elena. After a late dinner, Bonnie tells Caroline that she should go, New Orleans is waiting. She shakes her head, and says it can wait a little longer. They're going different ways after this, she wants the extra few hours. She also wants to tell her mom goodbye, at the station whenever they get up.

* * *

So they sit in Caroline's room and talk and watch stupid movies, it's fragile. They don't know when they can do this again. By the seconds movie, Bonnie is reminded that Caroline has the most extensive collection of bad romance movies in the world. Or at least, it feels like it. They stay up too late, later than they had planned. They're giggling and crying to a Disney movie and Caroline tells Bonnie she loves her. She wants her to go out there and explore the world and have fun. Bonnie tells her that she could come with her, but Caroline shakes her head. She means, Bonnie could find a coven. Maybe even someone to settle down with. Bonnie doesn't want to hear that, so she doesn't let Caroline finish the sentence. They both fall asleep before the end of the movie, with the happy resolution.


	19. Caroline

He notes her carefully braided hair, it's still damp. He carefully murmurs, that it's him, and to have her walls down as his focus narrows to her. He opens the door and hears something unexpected. His voice, though he's not speaking.

"Elena?" He calls. He walks closer towards the noise, wondering if Elena is dreaming. He walks to the hallway that seems to be the source of the noise, and he sees Elena close the door that has his name on it.

"Elijah." She says, a wide smile on her face.

"I was just doing some reorganizing. Memories." She explains as she leads the way back to her room.

He's intrigued, the memory had been of them getting ice cream. He remembered saying the words he had heard. He tells Elena that Caroline and Bonnie had called him, he had assured them she was fine. She asks him if it's night, and he nods. She marks the day off. She sits on her bed and he joins her. She tells him that she'd like it if he stayed the night in her head, but he doesn't have to. She knows he'll come back, and she could just let her dreams come to the surface and float in them. He asks if he can try something, when he returns. She agrees, curious.

* * *

Kol doesn't say anything when he sees his older brother return to Elena's room in pajamas. Elijah is thankful.

It takes longer to slip back into her mind than it did to do his nightly routine. She's waiting by the door when he returns, and he lets a grin appear on his face at that.

"I know you must be lonely, with only me for company." He begins, and she almost interrupts, Caroline will be in her head soon as well. At least, she hopes.

"But if you let me, I can show you something." He finishes. He had carefully spent a few hours on it, he hopes she likes it. She closes her eyes, and they're on the porch of the house, and she's guiding him through a door and then they're behind a wall.

"If I do anything that involves leaving my mind palace, I have to keep it frozen. It'll stay there, no matter what we do." She explains. She can bring the wall to wherever she wants, allowing them a shortcut back. It's a good idea, and she slips her elbow into his as they stare into the dark. It's just inky darkness, and he can't see anything other than the wall, even with his excellent eyesight.

"Give me some power here." He says, and she understands. She's too tenacious on her control. She carefully gives it up, little pieces at a time. She closes her eyes and he focuses on bringing his mind into hers. It can't blend in, it has to carefully rest against hers. They're not sharing one mind, he just wants to pull something out of his memories. She keeps her eyes closed, even though she feels something she thought she wouldn't feel for a long time. A warm breeze. She can feel heat against her skin, there's light that makes her open her eyes. Her arm is still in Elijah's. She looks at the bustling street of New Orleans. She can hear jazz and smell food and people and so many things it's almost an overload. She closes her eyes to try to focus at all of her senses. Elijah notes this, and asks if it's too much, concern is blatant in his voice.

"No, it's perfect. Thank you." She says. She's content to stand and watch this memory a few minutes, it's a beautiful gift.

"Are you going to let me take you on a tour of the city we live in?" He inquires and her eyes open with excitement. Her smile is worth the hours it took, and he's glad for it.

They spend a long time walking around, he carefully narrates their tour with history and his own experiences. He shows her the house they're currently living in. He tells her of his brother's desire to live where Marcel is, and they could take it, but it's a matter of planning. When they reach her room, her hands go to her hair.

It's so odd to see herself like that, tucked in and her hair in a braid. Her arm is taped to a board to keep the IV from moving or hurting her.

She moves out of the room after a few seconds and he has to console her.

"I look so dead. And lifeless. I don't look like myself." She says, and her voice is close to shaking. It's hard not to compare them, the Elena with closed eyes and a needle in her arm and the lively one who has her arms around him. Elena takes back the control, she can't stand it anymore, they find themselves landing on a dirt floor.

* * *

It reminds him of the time she undaggered him, the first time.

"We're in the basement. I'm sorry." Seeing herself was surreal. The girl in that bed didn't even smell like her, she hopes Caroline will fix that soon. Caroline knows where the perfume in her bag is. She apologizes and he tells her that he would have acted similarly. She doubts it, Elijah was never as obvious with her emotions as she was. But she leads him upstairs again, and they hear sound. A ringing noise and Klaus. Elena stiffens against him, and focuses on his voice.

"Caroline just informed me that she will be coming today. She has just left Mystic Falls." His brother says and then wonders aloud if either of them can hear him, and Elena looks at him, she can't risk it. He nods and he's thrown out of her mind before he can comprehend it, his eyes open to look at Klaus. Elena might not mind living somewhat near his brother, but she won't have him in her mind. He doesn't blame her.


	20. Sing

AN: Sorry if the Liz/Caroline relationship is written badly, I don't have any personal experience to put into writing positive mother/daughter stuff.

* * *

Her bags are packed, she's told her mom that she'll come back and clear out her room within a year, but she just needed to go be with Elena. Her mother had nodded, still in disbelief. But she's at the station, in her mom's office and they're hugging because it sinks in that she meant it.

"I'm not going to stop you. This is your life and you should live it how you want it. You're my daughter, and I love you, I'm always going to love you Caroline. Call me if you need anything. I know you're an adult, and you're mature and too old to need me, but I'm here for you. Give Elena my love too." The sheriff says and Caroline cries into her mother's shoulder. Elena needs her, and they've planned this, but she's never planned to be away from her mom this long.

"I'll call every day." She promises, and her mother shakes her head.

"Call me when you want. You have your own life to think about. It might get a little crazy and busy, but when you have time I'd love to hear about it." Her mom says and Caroline gives her one last squeeze before letting go.

"I love you mom." She says, she isn't going to say goodbye. She can't bring herself to.

"I love you too, Caroline. Have fun." Her mother says, and she watches her strong daughter walk out of her office, and the building, but not out of her life.

* * *

Caroline plays pop songs to distract her for the first few hours, she sings along and tries to think about positive things. She's never interacted with Elijah without Elena before. Elena will still be there, she corrects herself. She just won't be talking. She stops for lunch before she continues the long drive, she updates Klaus on her location, and confirms that she'll go to the location he had texted her a few days ago.

He tells her to give him a bit of a heads up before she arrives there, and she agrees. She wonders if she's driving into a war zone, as she sings along to a cute song about hope and love.


	21. Stay

It's dark when she texts Klaus that she's thirty minutes away from the place he wanted her to be. She would have driven into the city and seen Elena first, consequences be damned, but he had convinced her not to. The city was a broken war zone. Humans had no idea. She drives, and parks as she sees two familiar faces in the car next to hers. She rolls down her window and they do the same. She looks at them for a moment before anyone speaks.

Kol and Klaus. She had met Kol at the ball their mother had thrown, that seems like ages ago to her.

"Hello, Caroline." The hybrid says and she just rolls her eyes.

"So I'll just follow your car into New Orleans?" She asks. The brother confirm it, and she rolls her window up. She can hear Kol making comments to his brother. Caroline has to bite back a laugh more than once. She follows them, into the city.

* * *

It's gorgeous. The house they're staying at is gorgeous too, and she parks next to Klaus. When she gets out, they offer to help her with her boxes. She agrees. Klaus tells her the history and leads her to her room. She drops her bags when she sees Elena. She has an IV in her arm, and it's odd to see her so peaceful. Elijah is next to her, his hand in hers.

She looks at Klaus, confusion on her face.

"It's easier to get into someone's head with physical contact. You haven't missed anything, love." He assures her, and with a huff, she picks up her bags and she and the two brothers fill her room with her things. It's a lovely blue that she appreciates more when she's lying on her bed.

* * *

She needs to unpack, she can't talk to Elena, Elijah is in her head. She can't even sit and pretend like Elena's listening with him there. He'll teach her to talk to Elena soon. But she wants to clear her head, she needs other noise. She can hear Rebekah and Kol in the kitchen talking, and she can hear Klaus's heart, but he's not doing anything. He's the only one unoccupied, she tells herself. It's not because she wants to see if his eyes match her walls.

* * *

"Caroline." He greets. She find him on the balcony.

"It's beautiful up here." She says and he nods.

"Indeed." He agrees, and she stands with him, watching the street below, the people hurrying and the lights making everything look interesting to her. She doesn't know how long she stands next to him, each time she thinks about the time, she tells herself she'll go in when she wants to. She doesn't have anything pressing to do. She already told her mom and Bonnie that she was in New Orleans, safe and sound.

* * *

She doesn't leave the warm night air and the beauty of it all and the balcony until Klaus does.


	22. Stars

AN: This is chronologically set as the same time as chapter 20, just focused on Elena and Elijah.

* * *

He has to deal with a few things after Klaus tells him of the nearing arrival of Caroline, including a shower and setting a few things in order. He needs to return to Elena, needs to explain what's going on.

He talks to her, asking her to lower her walls. He's coming in. It's becoming easier to match her, breath and heartbeat, and frame of mind.

* * *

The walls are down, and the door is actually open, she's waiting. She asks him questions before he's even in.

"Caroline's coming today? Can you teach her like you taught me? Is everything okay? Do you have updates on the plan to take down Marcel? What time is it?"

"Yes, she is. She's got a long drive ahead, it's still a few hours until lunch time. I can teach her, when she gets here. And I do have details on that plan, actually." Elijah says and she grins and lets him in. They have a lot to talk about.

* * *

She asks him to show her a happy memory of his, and he asks her to give a little control to him. She takes his hand and ignores the butterflies, she'll think about it later, and brings up a wall, with a door. The door is open and she pulls him through before it shuts.

* * *

She does give him power, it's an odd feeling. It's like the feeling of losing control, like it's slipping, but the power isn't leaving her mind. She's still powerful here, and Elijah is the one taking the power. So it's okay. She takes a deep breath, and for the first time in a few days, she wonders if she needs it. She decides not to find out. She likes breathing anyway, and when she's almost given enough, he asks her to close her eyes. So she does. She trusts Elijah. Almost more than she trusts herself. Her mind is empty when she feels the shift, the air isn't as hot as New Orleans. His fingers squeeze hers, and she asks if she can open her eyes. They're on a grassy ridge of land, they're high up. It's dark out, but she can see so many stars that it takes her breath away. There's a blanket in his other hand, and he reminds her to breathe. She does, forcing air into her lungs at the reminder.

"I wasn't sure if you wanted to see the night sky since the darkness is what you see if you uncover a window, but I thought you might miss the stars." He says simply, and she's careful with her footing, but she hugs him. He drops the blanket, it brushes against her skin for a moment before he does.

"Thank you." The words are a grateful whisper, she wonders how he knows exactly what she misses, but remembers the amount of time he spent in her head before her magical coma. He knows her well. She realizes that she never feels as safe as she does when she's with Elijah. Even before this. Once he began to help her with her transition, she thinks that he began to trust her too. She can't bring herself to feel anything but grateful and happy that she made that phone call with shaking fingers and tears she wouldn't let fall, and the hunger that was threatening to destroy her from the inside out. She wants to tell him this, but she doesn't say anything. He already knows. She's not sure what she feels for him, she'll deal with it while he's off teaching Caroline tomorrow. When she lets go, he spreads the blanket over a nearly flat part of the ridge, and he sits down. He waits for her to join him, and she's on her back as he points out constellations, and he rests his back against the blanket after what feels like an hour. He can never tell time with Elena. Not even before the coma. She doesn't ask, but he does offer that this is a memory he's adjusted for their use. They watch the stars, and he adjusts the light and stars accordingly with his perception of time. Elena's head moves to his shoulder, and he can't bring himself to mind, he never can mind it when Elena's touching him. It's almost dawn, and Elena has been quiet, absorbing the knowledge of stars that he gives, and then they hear something. They both focus in on it, neither notice the sky returning to darkness as they do.

"-someone's head with physical contact. You haven't missed anything, love." It's Klaus's voice. They wait to hear something else, but there isn't anything else to hear.

"Caroline's here." Elena says and Elijah wonders if she wants him to leave so he waits for her to to continue.

"She's probably tired from driving, she might be up a little later than you. Care loves her sleep." Elena tells him, and he asks if she wants him to leave. She tells him no as soon as he lets her.

'This is nice. And one of the nicest things anyone's ever done for me. If you don't mind, I'd like to stay here a little longer." She says and he tells her of course he can stay. It's nighttime, no one needs him right now. If they do, they can wait. She's beginning to think she likes the night more than the day. No one wants him out of her head when the sky is dark and the stars are out. He resumes telling her of his knowledge of stars and their stories.


	23. Promise

They watch the sunrise together, in the adjusted memory. It's so beautiful that she makes him promise to accompany her when she wakes up. She wants to see the world when she gets out of the coma. She wants to see as much as he has. She's had a few decades of existing, but she feels like she's barely lived. Something she wants to fix. He tells her that she has been living. She shouldn't judge herself to other people's standards, but agrees that her coma is limiting. He promises to take her anywhere she wants to go. He gives her his word on it. She reminds him that she's going to hold him to it. He reminds her that she always does. She just grins, and before she suggests they point out shapes in the clouds, they hear Klaus. They focus on listening, and the hybrid says that it's morning, and they have things to do if Elijah's done in her head. He tells them he'll return in twenty minutes if Elijah isn't out by then. Real life calls. He gives her power back, little by little, and they're back by the wall protecting her mind palace. He's on one side of the doorway and she's on the other.

"I will have Caroline visit you as soon as she is ready. I'll be back when I can." He assures her, it isn't a goodbye, it's just a promise. He always keeps his promises, so she watches and feels his presence leave her mind. She puts her walls up, and walks to her room, sleep in mind.


	24. Breakfast

He can see why his little brother is so smitten with Caroline. She's lovely, and confident. She's also very loyal, and he can see why Elena values her so highly. He wants to be her friend as well, he is going to see her for quite a while. Her sense of humor is similar to Elena's, he finds himself laughing along with Kol and Rebekah at her jokes at quick wit.

He can see Rebekah becoming friends with her, they have one mutual interest at least, shopping. Elena enjoyed shopping, she had told him herself, she just couldn't go do it for several hours. Not for clothes at least. He felt inclined to agree, but he watches with a neutral expression as Caroline asks if Rebekah wants to go shopping. They're not friends, his sister warns her. Not yet. Caroline looks hopeful at her wording, and he makes a note to tell Elena of the new development. Niklaus is interestingly absent from the breakfast table, but he can hear him painting in his room. They have a few minutes before they need to discuss their plan to get witches on their side. The promise of being able to do magic freely seems like a trick to them, and they need something to convince the few covens that are interested in their want to shift the power. He listens to Rebekah shout to Klaus they'll be out of the city to shop, and she won't lose Caroline. The younger blonde sounds quietly irritated, before Rebekah explains that as a resident of the Mikaelson residence, she could be used as leverage. It's why someone is always home, although Rebekah does count Elena's nurse as someone. The house is never empty now, someone has to keep Elena safe. It's not a hassle, usually. Caroline seems interested, and she asks Rebekah questions about fashion throughout her life before they leave Elijah's hearing range.

* * *

"How's Elena? What's her mind like?" Kol asks, after a sip of orange juice. He wonders how his older brother can stand to be in someone else's mind, he's rarely done it.

"She's adjusting well. Not everyone would. She's sorted her mind into what people call a mind palace. It's fascinating, though I have not explored much of it. She has rooms for people, all of her experiences and thoughts and feelings are behind a mental door. Everything is organized and has a meaning to it. It's an intriguing concept. I find the idea of attempting to do it myself tedious, I would wager it's easier to do with less memories. But her mind palace is like a physical place for her to stay, it's not such a mess in there. She actually has a bed that she sleeps in, it's not just floating around like most people do while dreaming. I visit her there. She's doing great considering, but I think she'll be better when Caroline can visit her." Elijah answers. Kol looked interested.

"She can't visit Elena now?" He asks. Elijah shakes his head.

"She doesn't know how to enter dreams. I am planning on teaching her when I can. Elena's mind is different. It's not like entering a human's dream, humans don't have the ability to set up strong walls, or usually walls at all. They are open books, their minds are not that active. Elena is fully awake at most times, and her walls are very strong. An active mind adds another layer of difficulty to it. Miss Forbes will need practice before attempting to enter Elena's mind." He explains, happy his brother seems interested. It's not too often that they have very deep conversations about people who aren't blood related. It's nice, and Kol wants to do it more often. He's not going to suddenly love some of the boring and rather dusty books he reads, but he might try a few different books this week. He almost forgot what the feeling of home was like. He wants this to stay the way it is. It's rather nice.


	25. Interesting

It's nice to have Elijah in her head, but she enjoys sleep. She has one nonsensical dream after another, and she wakes up in her mind palace with no concept of what time it is. Elijah hasn't tried to enter her head, so she decides to go through her room for him again, she needs to make a box to hold memories from her coma.

* * *

The memories that she hasn't sorted are still loose, and it doesn't look nice. She straightens and adds boxes, she's sure Elijah would be amused that the shelf of her memories involving his help during her first months as a vampire has a box for their times of getting ice cream. It's even labeled as such, and she plays a familiar tune as she finishes, and works on other rooms. She almost feels like Rapunzel, but her hair isn't that long, Rapunzel got to see the sun, and Rapunzel got a happy ending and a prince. Elena wants a happy life, not necessarily an ending, because that would mean her death.

* * *

A prince sounds pretty nice though, and she thinks of Caroline and her love and adoration of princesses from years before. She had so many tiaras and Disney movies, Bonnie had remarked, it seemed like years ago, it had only been months-that she was surprised Caroline wasn't an actress at one of the Disney parks. This of course, had led to a discussion of which of them was most like which princess. Elena had decided Caroline was Aurora, and Bonnie had agreed. Bonnie had declared that Elena was most like Belle, with her love of books and writing. It didn't hurt that she had the brown hair and eyes like the princess either. Caroline had asked what princess Bonnie wanted to be compared to, and she had declared Merida. Caroline had laughed and said she needed to work on her archery for that, and Bonnie had retorted that at least Merida had a skill. That comment had ended in an argument that wasn't very serious, and a very serious rewatch of the three movies with ice cream. The memory hurts a little bit. She won't ever get to do that with Caroline and Bonnie again. Ever. She can pretend in her head, and relive the memories, but it wouldn't really be girl's night without Bonnie. It would just be a sleepover with Caroline.

* * *

She walks to her notes room, the room full of carefully filed, yellow sticky note mental reminders. She writes one down and sticks it on the outside wall near the door. When she passes it, she'll remember. In her messy scrawl, she reminds herself to ask Elijah if Bonnie could use a spell or magic to enter her mind. If he didn't know, she'd ask him to pretty please find out for her. It's not like she can do research or google anything. She writes another sticky note, asking him to keep her updated on current events and discoveries. Maybe she can ask him to make a playlist of lectures or something. She doesn't want to be stupid when she comes out of her coma, she wants to have little adjustment time. At least, to the world. It'll be odd to move her own body and need to drink blood. She doesn't have a kitchen here, she realizes. Or bathrooms. Only the mirror in her bedroom.

That'll be an odd adjustment. She wonders for a moment, what would happen if she fell into the wrong hands. Would Bonnie feel it if she died? She can feel something against her hand, like she's trying to hold hands with a ghost when Elijah visits. She's assuming, because the hand switches each time, that he holds the hand that doesn't have an IV a few inches away in her arm. Would she feel anything else? She's not going to ask Elijah to inflict pain on her to find out, but it's an interesting thought. She decides to head upstairs again to sleep a little more.


	26. Shopping

Caroline asks her if it's fine that they're out shopping, her brothers had seemed busy when they were driving away, after all. Rebekah just looks at her through brand new sunglasses. Caroline had tried to pay for herself, but Rebekah reminded her that her family didn't worry about money. It's on her. She assures the younger vampire that it's fine. When they need to return, Nik will call. Until then, she needed new shoes. Caroline's serious face disappears as Rebekah pulls her into a boutique.


	27. Tie

He asks her to focus on the sleeping human, he had offered the man money to spend a few minutes with him and the blonde vampire he was with. The man had agreed, and Elijah had compelled him to sleep for a few moments. Caroline is a fast study, he learns. In a few days, he's sure she could enter a vampire's mind. He compels the man to wake up and forget, he supplies a false memory and hands the man money. Caroline thinks that, at least the human got compensated. She yawns, and almost falls by misjudging where a wall is. She notices how tired Elijah is too.

* * *

"This mental stuff is exhausting." She complains as he drives back.

"That does not get much better with age." He admits. She groans, and when it's apparent that he's not doing well with his exhaustion either, she commands that he go to bed. He has to tell Elena, has to. He yawns.

* * *

He barely makes it into her mind, she has to help him walk into her mind palace. She is much stronger here, in her mind. She sets him on her bed and tells him whatever news he has can wait. If he's in her mind, they're going to sleep because she's exhausted too. If he wants to do something stupid and stay awake, she tells him, he can do it outside of her mind.

He agrees, and he barely gets his shoes and jacket off when she's pulling back the covers. She loosens his tie as his back hits the mattress. She knows he's a vampire, but she's always worried that he can't breathe when he sleeps with a tie on. After threatening to cut one off him, he had carefully moved her hands with his and shown her how to loosen it. His eyes are closed before hers. She almost doesn't pull up the comforter as hers do too.


	28. Chinese Food

AN: I am so sorry for not updating like I should have yesterday, but my day was super long and I slept for like 14 hours last night. My new schedule is killing me.

* * *

She's with Klaus, he's asking what she wants for dinner. She doesn't care either way. He hasn't been trying to woo her since she's gotten there. Maybe he wasn't as serious about her as she had thought. The thought is disappointing, and Kol arrives to announce that he wants Chinese food. Klaus looks to her in confirmation.

"Do you mind Chinese food?"

She shakes her head.

"As long as I get to order for myself, I don't mind at all." This makes him give her a smile, and she wants to chastise her stomach. Maybe he's just going for a subtle approach. She stops that train of thought, she shouldn't think of that. The butterflies in there need to stop. Kol produces a menu and Rebekah enters the room as Kol dials.

* * *

They all order, and Klaus doesn't order for Elijah.

Caroline asks why, and the Originals look amused.

"Elijah likes to spend his time in Elena's head. It's not likely that he's coming out for a while." Kol explains.

"Wait, so I'm not the only one who sees that?" She asks. Her question produces laughter from the older vampires.

"Love, Elijah has not been subtle in his feelings for Elena." Klaus says.

* * *

They end up debating Elena's feelings as they wait for their food. The Originals are actually, much better company than she had imagined. They tell good stories, and after centuries of living, they have some really good ones. Caroline thinks that maybe this won't be so bad after all. Hope bubbles up in her chest. She doesn't feel inclined to try and stop it.


	29. Leaving

Elena wakes up with her face on skin that isn't hers. Elijah. She doesn't have to think about it, he's one of the only people who would sleep next to her, and she's stuck in her own head. That leaves only him. Caroline would have woken her up in her excitement, if she had been there. As she moves back, she wonders if it would be better or worse if she knew the time. She and Elijah have no idea what time it is. It could be four pm or three am, and she wouldn't know.

She carefully moves his arm from over her back so she can roll to the other side of the bed. Every time he slept next to each other, they ended up getting close. She didn't mind. If he did, she knew he would have mentioned something. They were just good friends.

She lets him sleep for a few more minutes, but it's when she opens her door that he wakes.

"I feel much better." He admits. Being in her mind for hours exhausted him. It was worth it, but it took a lot of energy to do something like that.

"Me too." She tells him, and reminds him to take care of himself first. It's not the first time she's done so. It won't be the last either, she knows. Elijah's set in his ways about things like that. He realizes he's not properly dressed, and before his hands move to fix his tie, she waves her hand and it's fixed. Except his hair. He pretends to look irritated as he fixes it.

"What did you need to tell me?" She asks, and he notes her immaculate appearance. Perhaps that's because it's her mind, that she looks like that. He was fairly sure she had worn something else before they had passed out together.

"Caroline is making excellent progress. She should be able to visit you soon. My siblings and I are working on getting trust from different covens, Niklaus is planning on meeting Marcel rather soon and another day has passed."

He has nothing but good news, she's thrilled as she marks off another day on the calendar.

"You should probably go." She says, and he nods.

"I promise I will come visit again. Nothing too tiring for either of us next time, I promise." He says and she walks down the stairs and to the front door with him. He's out of her mind, and then she raises her walls. Just in case. She has some more organizing to do.


	30. Call

She has to call her mother while the sheriff is eating lunch, but she updates her mother on everything that she can think of. Including her progress with Elijah and getting into people's minds. She talks of the beauty of the city and the hospitable Originals, the scars on the city that they hoped to heal and the weather. She sees Elijah walk past her door and realizes Elena's free to listen to her talk. about time. He couldn't just have Elena all to himself after all. She listens to her mother talk about home, and she admits to her that she misses Mystic Falls, badly actually. She hasn't ever been away for this long. She's always been within a few hours of her mom. There's a hard pain in her chest at the thought. _This is growing up,_ she tells herself. _This is what it feels like._ _I'm an adult._ She reminds herself. She won't tell her mother of the pain, there's no need to inflict any on her.

* * *

She will tell Elena, and call Bonnie in a few minutes. Their call ends when her mom tells her she has to go, duty calls. Caroline understands that, she hasn't always. She wonders if she'll ever have a sense of duty like her mom. Maybe someday. For now, she'll settle for checking in on Bonnie. She waits for her call to be answered.


	31. Sunset

AN: Requests for extended way from 106 ways to say I love you will be open for another week, if I don't get any, the fic will be marked as complete and I'll move on to other stuff.

* * *

Bonnie answers, and she asks how Caroline is. She answers honestly, the Originals aren't that bad. Bonnie tells her that she's researching ways that she could enter Elena's mind to talk to her. She wants to talk to her too. She asks if Caroline has entered their friend's mind yet. Caroline tells her no, but she's working on it. Bonnie confesses that she misses her, and Mystic Falls is oddly empty without her two best friends. Caroline tells her they can still communicate, just not face to face for a while. Bonnie has to end the call first, something came up-but she promises to call soon.

Caroline walks to Elena's room, and takes a deep breath.

Elijah had advised her to speak her first sentence a few times, Elena could pick up on noise, but she needed to focus to hear it. Caroline's just envious he's seen Elena and she hasn't. Elena smells off, and Caroline tells her so, a few times. She gets the perfume out of Elena's bag and sprays it. Elena smells like herself at least. She sits next to her best friend and begins to talk. About anything and everything on her mind. She talks about how odd it is to see the Originals eating Chinese food and what New Orleans is like. She promises to get Elena some cute clothes on her next shopping trip with Rebekah. She talks until her throat is in pain, and it's been a few hours. The lack of light through Elena's curtains tells her that she missed the sunset. She tells Elena goodbye, and that she will talk to her as soon as possible. As soon as she masters getting into people's heads. She promises to talk to her every day until she does. She reminds Elena that she loves her, and says goodnight.


	32. Swords and Workout Gear

AN: I wrote this in a rush, sorry guys, I'm working like 8 hours after this, sorry if it doesn't make any sense. The song for this chapter: I Really Like You

* * *

It seems like it's been days, although when she begins to count minutes, it hasn't really been as long as she's thought, but it feels like Elijah's late. If he was injured, would anyone tell her? She hasn't felt this useless in a long time. She creates another room for working out. Even if her physical body can't move, she might as well practice. She plays music loud, so loud it almost hurts. It's okay if Elijah can't come every day, really. It's thirty seven minutes and seventeen seconds of her counting aloud when she hears sound, distant. She turns the music down and focuses. Elijah. She takes down her walls, it's getting easier with practice. She put up arrows for him, and hopefully Caroline, explaining what room is, right now the arrows will point to where she is. The music resumes as she dances around her punching bag, this was a good idea. The song is on loop, she pays attention to the time.

* * *

The music stops when she hears someone clear their throat. Elijah.

He seems a little amused by her workout gear, but he's seen her in everything else, so she doesn't care.

"Are you late? It feels like you're an hour late. I've been working about for almost forty five minutes." She says and he looks interested.

"I am later than usual, Caroline managed to get into Niklaus's head tonight. For being an all powerful being, my brother has no mental blocks. I was delayed, attempting to teach him how to do so. By the end of the week, Caroline will be talking to you in here." He says and she lets out a whoop of joy. She tells him, as she produces swords for them to practice with, that Caroline had talked to her directly and it had been wonderful. She grins and it's distracting enough for her to get the advantage, the blunt edge of her sword is centimeters away from his throat. She makes a sound of delight.

"I won." Her voice is smug and proud and he can't help but find it attractive.

"You did." He admits.

"But what about another round?" He proposes. She grins even wider.

"You're on."


	33. Trust

She's grinning widely, and he shifts slightly, and her hand jerks and she gasps, and drops her sword. He feels it slice through skin, her hands are on the area. There should be a wound, but he feels fine. Her hand meets smooth skin.

"I suppose since this is your mind, if you do not want to see me harmed, I will not be. Thus, I am fine. Although I would prefer my neck in one piece, for future reference." He says, and her hands move from his throat to around his back, she was so scared she had hurt him.

"It's okay, you're okay, I'm okay. It's okay. We're both okay." The words are a familiar quick murmur. He used to do this, when they were training. He had always said it in a crushing hug, his chin on her shoulder, so many times. She can't count them all. She calms her breathing. It's familiar. The swords disappear.

"Are you sure?" She can't remember how many times she has asked that.

"I am certain." He assures her, they're following their old script, it's all so comforting. She closes her eyes, and he feels the ground shift under their feet.

* * *

She opens her eyes, startled. Oh no. They're in his room, maybe if she just shoves him out the door and moves he won't notice. But he's always been observant.

"This is my room." He says, carefully looking at the shelves full of boxed memories. He wants her to be his personal organizer when she wakes up, this is fantastic. There are boxes with labels he hadn't expected, there are labels for when she's undaggered him, there's a shelf for hugs and times where she only remembers his voice. It's amazing. He wonders what his mind palace would look like-he won't make one. He spends too much time in Elena's to have the time to make his own.

She's bright red, evidently, she can blush in here. He gives a few more seconds of looking, the boxes of memories committed to his memory, and she suggests they leave. A little box appears, and floats by his face. He takes a step back to avoid touching it. She carefully grabs it, and he watches her put it in the injured shelf, he hears how he sounded when she had to take a handful of bullets out of his back. She shuts the box abruptly, and seals it. He opens the door wordlessly. He waits until she's carefully shut the door to ask if she would consider helping him make his own mind palace. She bites her lip, and he knows she's trying to think, it's the only time he ever sees her do that.

"It's your head. All of your memories. Are you sure you want me in there?" She wonders. It's a huge act of trust, she won't hold it against him if he rethinks it and says no. He nods.

"I do. I trust you." It's not a declaration, but a reminder.

* * *

Something bursts in her chest, a feeling floods her lungs. She can't speak.


	34. Speak

She's speechless, she opens her mouth and nothing comes out. A smile moves his mouth, and she knows he trusts her, but this is big. It's then and there that she decides that no matter what, she wants to be his friend as long as she lives. She had already known she wanted that with Caroline and Bonnie, but she has so many feelings involving Elijah, they're in their own sets of boxes. Her eyes widen slightly. He felt whatever her jumbled up feelings are. She doesn't know that he's thinking the same thing-he's wondering why he didn't feel any different. When he entered Caroline's room, he felt her love like a wave, all of those emotions. Is it possible that she boxed them up?

* * *

"When do you want to start on your mind palace?" She asks, when her throat works again.

"Where did you start with yours?" He asks. She tells him she'll give him a tour and explain along the way.


	35. Partial Tour

She goes back to his room, he seems intrigued by his, and since the memories involve him it'll be easier. It's not intruding. She explains, while opening an ice cream memories box, that she thought of her memories as little cubes, before that they were just misty. She sorted them however she wanted. Feelings can be put into cubes too, so she did that. She holds up admiration for him, he takes it from her like it's more delicate than an egg. It's not, she dropped a few cubes her first day. They're durable. They don't bounce though.

* * *

This, he can feel. It's amazing, to feel what she is. It's odd to feel this feeling in his chest, and know it isn't his. It almost feels like his admiration for her. He wonders if the feeling he can feel growing is his or hers. He carefully hands the cube back to her. It's his, he discovers.

* * *

They're in one of her permanent memory rooms, she admitted she had a few. It's a few hours before Bonnie woke up, she tells him. She's a little nervous to have him in there, she's about to degrade it to protect it, (it's lame but it's just a piece of home, you know?) But he looks awed.

"There are a few times in my life where I could have used room like this." He admits. She waves her hand, and everyone begins to move. Caroline and Jeremy are laughing and Alaric is smiling. It's where she left off. Elijah realizes that Elena's loved ones can't hear them, but if she chooses, she can interact with them. She's part of the memory. It makes sense.

* * *

She's about to show him the sticky note room when they both hear Rebekah. Elena focuses, and they hear screaming. He looks at her, and she knows the quickest way back to the real world is to push him out. So she does. He disappears. She goes to work out until someone tells her what's going on.


	36. Chaos

He is highly displeased with his siblings when he discovers why his sister is screaming. Kol turned her hair magenta. Centuries of living, and his siblings still act like children. He wants a drink or two, but he sees Caroline holding Klaus's hand, they're both passed out on the couch as he goes to find them. On closer inspection, he realizes the hybrid mostly likely let the baby vampire into his head. Maybe he is more serious about her that Elijah had previously thought. Elijah checks his phone and repeats what the time is a few times, and tells them he'll be in Elena's head and explains the screaming and shouting of Kol and Rebekah. And after a few seconds of listening, he adds that any other chaotic noises are most likely them as well.

* * *

He returns to Elena's room, and has to block out the noises of destruction a few rooms away. Rebekah's hair is fixable. She's just angry. He'll do damage control with his siblings later, if he doesn't let them war at each other, it'll happen later.

* * *

He has to slow his breathing, and focus for a few minutes before he can return to Elena's mind.


	37. Three's A (Mental) Crowd

AN: Reminder that requests for extended ways from 106 ways to say I love you are open for the next three days and then it's getting closed! Also I wouldn't mind character requests for Heroine either.

* * *

She's relieved when she feels him come back. She didn't put her walls up, she didn't want to delay his return. He explains as soon as he can speak. Kol pranked Rebekah. She now has vibrant, magenta colored hair.

Elena visibly relaxes.

"I was surprised how long they went without mischief." He admits. She nods.

"If Rebekah can't dye it back, magic could probably fix it." She muses. He gives a slight grin.

"Noted." He says and she tries to remember where they were before Rebekah's bloodcurdling scream. He reminds her, the room of just sticky notes. She takes his arm, he doesn't resist her-and the front door disappears out of sight.

* * *

He sees a rainbow of sticky paper everywhere, neatly organized by color. She looks at him, and then to a few yellow sticky notes, neatly arranged in a rectangle a few feet away.

She reads them to him, and gives him a polite to do list. She wants to know there's a spell to let people in her head, like Bonnie or Jeremy. She also wouldn't mind listening to current events and new discoveries for the duration of her coma, she wants as little adjustment time as possible when she gets out. He did promise to travel with her. She wants that as soon as possible. She has a few messages she wants him to get to a few of the residents of Mystic Falls too, if it's not an inconvenience. He tells her, that even if it was, he'd do it. She deserves it. He's brimming with his want to tell her how much he wishes she wasn't stuck in this situation, and she seems to notice. Elena's always been too perceptive when it comes to him.

* * *

He updates her on everything he can think of, including Caroline in his brother's head. It's nice to see her this excited again, and she finishes her tour as they hear a familiar voice. It's Caroline, demanding Elijah get out of her head, she wants in. He's never had more than two people in one mind, and doesn't know what having three would do. So Elena smiles at him, giving him a brief hug before she tells him she'll take him out, it's the easiest. He nods against her shoulder, and then her arms are empty.


	38. A New Visitor

She sits in the front doorway, listening to Elijah speak gently to Caroline, reminding her to relax and focus on Elena's breathing. She's equally quiet, she really really wants this. Elijah confirms that she can do it. There's a ghost of feeling on one of her hands, and she waits with anticipation. There aren't any walls, Caroline shouldn't have any trouble. She's tried to make it as easy as possible. She stares into the darkness, the fear of getting swallowed by it isn't so consuming while still in her mind palace but it's still present. She blinks a few times when she thinks she sees a flash in the dark.

"Care?" She can't help how her voice sounds, fragile and scared. She stands up, about to go investigate before she's knocked to the ground. The instincts Elijah had instilled in her almost make her flip the situation, but familiar perfume fills her nose. She's being pressed to the floor in the most intense hug she's ever received from Caroline. Tears leak out of her eyes without her permission. She doesn't say anything, she can feel Caroline's tears against her shoulder. She just wraps her arms around the blonde, tighter.


	39. Spilling

They eventually get off the floor, Caroline doesn't apologize because she isn't sorry that she tackled her best friend. She tells her everything, even what she saw in Klaus's head. It was a bunch of misty, hard to see things, and then he shifted them into a memory. It was beautiful, Caroline admits. He told her she was more beautiful than any painting could ever hope to capture, and she had replied that maybe he could, he just needed practice. She looks nervously at Elena, pulling back to look at her.

She sighs, and Caroline's worried that she's disappointed. Elena is about to speak and then waves her hand. Caroline finds herself on something familiar. Elena's bed. She admits, that she had a lot of time in her own head to think. Klaus isn't the absolute worst person for Caroline. She hasn't quite forgiven him for the hell he put her through, but-if he makes Caroline happy-she isn't going to judge. Caroline is happy at the news. Elena reminds her that if Klaus ever hurts her, Bonnie and she will make his life hell on Earth. It's their promise, when any of them was interested in someone, before the person with a crush went further, they said that. It's a blessing to go seek out love if they believed they had found it. It's approval, and a reminder that they were always there to listen, a promise to be there if needed, with ice cream and threats if something went wrong. It's a reminder that they want each other to be happy.

By Caroline's face, she hasn't gotten it from Bonnie yet. She just holds her friend close as she begins to cry, life throws hard curveballs at them. She doesn't want to lose Bonnie because of butterflies that never really go away when she's near Klaus. She doesn't want to, she wants a safe love that's guaranteed, like one of her romance movies. She wants someone to be perfect with. Someone to compliment her. She had always wanted that. The fact that she has to revise it, anyone she wants to date now can't be human. The idea that Klaus fits bits and pieces of her ideal but somehow makes sense to her heart is confusing, and she's kept this to herself for so long that it comes out like a wave. She needed Elena.

Elena just holds her best friend as she spills secrets in a steady river.


	40. Crying

AN: Sorry if this makes no sense, I just got done with a 9 hour shift

* * *

She's not sure which one of them is crying more, she missed Caroline so badly. She misses Bonnie and Jeremy. She misses Ric. She misses everything. Caroline holds her as she confesses everything she hasn't admitted to Elijah. She misses ice cream and the sun. She misses seeing strangers and getting lost. And it's only going to get worse, she says tearfully. She misses almost everything. Caroline just holds her as she tells her own confessions. She admits that she really likes Elijah, but she can't possibly tell him. Maybe she would have explored it while she was awake, but it's not fair to tell him while she's stuck in her own head. Caroline just holds her tighter as her secrets spill out.


	41. Wager

"What do you think they're talking about in there?" Kol wonders aloud.

"Nik and Elijah probably." His sister answers, not bothering to look up from her phone. Klaus chooses that moment to walk into the house.

"What did I miss?" He asks, moving to where his siblings are in a few seconds.

"We were just talking about how that baby vampire is probably talking to the doppelganger about you." Rebekah says and his younger siblings both catch the flicker of hope in his eyes.

* * *

"Want to make a wager, Bekah?" Kol asks, a grin appearing on his face. His sister puts down her phone to look at him. She moves her hair, back to the blonde she was born with. She's already gotten her revenge on Kol, they're even now.

"Perhaps." She answers. Kol's grin widens, he knows she's already accepted.

"I'll be you my house in France that Caroline doesn't spends time with Nik, _alone,_ within twelve hours of getting out of the doppelganger's ahead. Sleeping doesn't count." He proposes. She grins.

"Deal. I'll put that house to good use, I promise." She says and they both catch the hybrid tense. He wants his sister to be right. So does she. She's always liked the little manor house in the French countryside.

* * *

Bloodstains came out eventually. She'd hire someone to do it when the house was hers.


	42. Brotherly Drinking

She sends her friend out of her head when she's spent so much time in there that she's tired. Elijah can fall asleep in her head because he knows what he's doing, but she's not sure how much training he's given Caroline on her own mind. Elena won't have Caroline sleep in her head until she's sure the blonde has mental walls. Besides, she's sure her friend wants to fall asleep in the real world. Caroline protests, and Elena reminds her that she will be there, whenever she wants to return. The reminder hurts a little, but Caroline nods and Elena saves her time by pushing her out. She walks back to her room, to sleep.

* * *

Caroline sleeps next to Elena, too tired to want to move.

* * *

Klaus and Elijah are on one of their walks where they plan, and Klaus talks with his hands a little bit more because he's tired. Honestly between Caroline's arrival and the war and everything else in between-and they stop. They both know, that they're in love with the two baby vampires on that bed. Klaus helps him pull a blanket over both of them, and they don't speak of it for a few hours.

* * *

They plan with what one of the covens has given as an outline, the first fight will be in six days. As Rebekah seems uninterested in fighting this time, she's been tasked with keeping Caroline and Elena out of sight of anyone who might come looking. It's all in the final stages, and Klaus pours his older brother a drink before he pours one for himself.

"You're in love with Elena." His brother says after his first sip. Elijah takes a long swallow before nodding.

"I am." The fact she is not in love with him is implied. Even if she did love him, she's in a coma. He knows his brother fancies, if not loves Caroline. He takes a drink to give him time to choose his words.

"You once told me that love was a vampire's greatest weakness." He reminds his brother, who lets out a short bark of laughter.

"And yet, here we are. In love." He closes his eyes as he takes a careful sip of alcohol. His older brother sighs.

"Indeed."

* * *

It's a few more glasses of alcohol before they part ways from the study.


	43. Comfort

AN: I feel like I should mention I'm back in school, I still plan to write every day, I'm just stretched between school, work, sleep and this. Sleeping is cutting into my writing time tbh. Also, any open fics will be completed. If you want a story updated faster than another, let me know!

* * *

He knocks because it's polite. He can hear wrappers crinkling in her room. She tells him that he can come in. He sees her sitting on her bed, with a box of chocolate.

"Interesting choice for breakfast." He says and she shrugs.

"I thought it'd be a little too early to start drinking." She says simply. He wonders what makes her want that, and he's about to offer champagne that would pair nicely with the expensive chocolate when they hear Elijah speak to Elena. He wants to enter her mind.

The chocolates have to be from Rebekah, she's had an amusing love of chocolate since she was undaggered.

"It's five o'clock somewhere." He offers and she offers a smile with a sniffle. There's a moment of silence, and he's about to walk out, assuming she doesn't want to him any longer.

"Klaus?" He hears her ask, her voice is soft.

"Yes, love?" She doesn't even look irritated like she used to when he said that, back in Mystic Falls.

"Have you ever had to deal with something like this? Elena might tell Elijah she's fine, but she isn't really and I can't help her like I want to. Like she deserves. And I just feel like a horrible friend because I'm sitting here eating chocolate and Elena misses food and she's missing everything and I am useless in this." She says, and he carefully walks towards her. She permits him to sit next to her on the bed. If he wasn't worried about Caroline first, he'd take it as a great sign.

He begins his endeavor to comfort her.


	44. Mind Palace Forming

He talks to her as soon as he sees the light-the doorway where she's standing. He catches her up on everything he can think of, including that he has a playlist set up on a laptop for her. When he leaves, he'll start it and she'll stay caught up. He contacted her loved ones in Mystic Falls, he has resources being sent to Bonnie to help her determine if there is a spell capable of such a thing. He apologizes, but he doesn't trust another witch with the knowledge of her coma. he begins to apologize, but she shakes her head. He stops. She thanks him for it, and thanks him for sending Caroline. He brushes it off, it's nothing. He wants to tell her he wishes he could do more, but he knows that'll only hurt both of them. He tries to be unselfish with Elena, and so he keeps his pain to himself.

* * *

She carefully manages to form a doorway between their minds, and he holds onto her as they get moved into inky darkness. She clutches at him, she doesn't like the dark. It was already terrifying in her mind, she can't imagine it being any better than Elijah's. He calms her down. They're not stuck or lost, they're where they need to be. He asks in a quiet voice what he needs to think of when forming the bones of his mind palace.

She closes her eyes and tells him that he needs to do the same.

* * *

He needs to think of architecture he likes, why he likes it. He needs to think of favorite places and safe places, sacred places and hiding places. The result should be something solid he can feel in his mind, not to think about it too hard. He shouldn't try to form anything, he just needs to think of the things she mentioned. She feels the air shift and his grip on her hand tighten for a moment. She opens a hesitant eye, seeing the last of memory-like smoke place itself where it needs to be.

She squeezes his hand and tells him to open his eyes.

She's sure it has more meaning to him, but she can pick out bits and pieces of periods and styles in the mind palace. Hers was formed from what she knew. His almost reminds her of manors and vacation homes for some reason, it's gorgeous gray stone. More castle than anything, he'd admit if she asked. She doesn't, and they just spend a few minutes sitting, admiring the exterior of his mind palace.


	45. Three

AN: For the record, the reason why Elena doesn't like the darkness is because there is simply nothing to see. There's nothing at all except for what she puts there, same for Elijah. The wager and Klaus/Caroline will be in this chapter as well.

* * *

She moves first, giving a gentle tug on his hand for him to do the same. They stand. He _created_ this. All of it, he can't help but marvel. She carefully leads him to the door. She wonders if hers will ever change, if she sees more. It's set of doors, she can tell, but perfect condition. He's the only one who can open them. He looks to her for a moment before he lets go of her hand. She nods, an encouragement. His palm is carefully placed against the door, he can feel the age of the wood, the grain under his hands, and pushes gently. The door opens, and he takes a look inside. Elena follows, and asks him if he wants them to see in the dark or if he wants to have light. He closes his eyes, light bursts in front of his eyes. He opens them on instinct. He looks at Elena, and then notices the air, he almost wants to stop breathing. There's mist around them, it fills all space that it's occupied by more solid things. He doesn't understand how she looks so completely calm, he feels a thread of alarm start in his chest.

"They're your memories." She tells him.

She helps him, and he wonders how much time she spent discovering these things by herself.

* * *

He hears Kol sigh as he hands Caroline a tissue.

Rebekah is victorious on the wager. He hears her demand Kol pay up. She moves her head from his shoulder when her phone rings.

He shifts to move and her eyes widen. She mouths the word please as she answers the call. He nods. He'll stay until she wants him to leave.

"Care?" It's the voice of the Bennett witch.

"Yeah?" She answers, her voice is a little rough from not speaking and crying too hard.

"I think I have a way for anyone to talk to Elena. Not just vampires. I could be in a few days." Bonnie says and she's so hopeful that Caroline feels absolutely terrible.

"No." Her voice doesn't come out how she wants it to, like how she needs it to be. She wants it to be be firm and strong. Instead, it's hasty and harsh.

"Care-" Bonnie begins, carefully.

"There's a war going on here. You can't do magic in the city without it being tracked. People leave the city to do magic. And there's going to be a big fight in five days. I can't let you come here. I promise as soon as it's safe, we can totally spend time with Elena." Caroline begins. She can tell her best friend wants to interrupt, but doesn't let her.

"But it's not safe for you right now. It's not safe for anyone at all. But the Originals are keeping us out of view, so we should be okay. When the dust settles, and the fighting is over, I promise to call you and tell you." She finishes and Bonnie sighs.

"Okay. Have you been able to talk to Elena?" She asks.

"Yeah. She misses you guys like crazy. She misses everything. Elijah and I are doing our best to keep her mind sharp." Another fear they all three share. Elena's worried too much time in her head will make her reclusive and unsocial, that she might lose her sanity by spending so much time alone. She can practically hear Bonnie nod.

* * *

They talk, about quiet little updates from Mystic Falls. She leans back into the deadly Original sitting next to her.

Her mom is doing okay, Jeremy and Alaric are trying to get used to having a house by themselves. Damon and Stefan are still gone.

Mystic Falls doesn't feel like home anymore, not since Caroline and Elena left, Bonnie admits.

* * *

Caroline's eyes are shiny with tears, and she still tries to assure Bonnie that it'll all work out.

* * *

Klaus admires her strength.


	46. Chapter 46

AN: Hey guys, this is a short Elejah chapter. There is a poll (my first ever poll) on my profile for this story, so please take it! Thank you!

He's loathe to leave, his mind palace is halfway done, but he can't stop yawning. No one has come to talk to them, he has no idea what time it is. They make their way back into her mind palace, she closes the door to his mind. That helps a little, but she shifts them directly into her bedroom. He doesn't bother trying to protest as his shoes disappear, he takes one side of her bed and relaxes his mind. She does the same a few seconds later.

She hears Kol ask her to please return Elijah, and she has to wake him up. She wonders if he feels the knife, she hates sending him away. She can't tell if it's better or worse than him leaving on his own or not. It hurts a little, to have to let Caroline and Elijah go. She can't help but wonder if the knife cuts both ways or not. She knows it must hurt, but she feels like emptiness seeps in when they leave, and the knife twists. She forces herself to relax, and hears a voice begin to speak. The playlist must have been started, she thinks, as she closes her eyes and listens to discoveries about space.


	47. Battle

His time is divided after that, any time not going over plans or soothing nerves is spent either sleeping or with Elena.

* * *

He tells her, in her mind palace, that when they've won, he'll be back when he can. She tries to stop him, he shouldn't make her a priority. He has family, and they've always put family first. He just looks at her with eyes she can't read-a memory she'll spend time analyzing when he's gone-and tells her he will be back when he can. Unless she doesn't want him to be. She admits that she does, and he tells her his brothers will be fighting with him. He'll return home, catch up briefly with Rebekah and Caroline, and then talk to her.

She sighs, Elijah is agreeable sometimes, and other times, he doesn't bend at all. She can feel another sticky note being added in her room, another question she wants answered. Does he always have a little bit of room for change, or does he only do that with her? Elijah could make her fill several rooms with questions, but she just focuses on his updates.

* * *

When Kol gives a warning on time, something that echoes through the barrier between her head and real life, she can't help but move forward to hug Elijah. He's an Original. One of the most powerful beings on the planet, and she's asking him to be careful. The hug is not to comfort him, he knows. It's for her comfort. So he gives her a proper hug. She's worried about him, and he wants to reassure her. She gives him a small smile when they break apart. He nods, and she sends him out of her mind, and waits.

* * *

Kol is excited. He hasn't had a good spree in ages. Elijah almost feels unsettled, watching his brothers peel back layers of control. Either way, Marcel's vampire army is doomed.

* * *

Klaus makes the announcement, Kol and Elijah standing next to him. Words are said, Elijah's proud of his little brothers. They've always been rather good at verbal sparring. He watches Kol for a second. He can't help but feel the surge of pride that comes up as he sees them fight.

* * *

Klaus has claimed Marcel as his to deal with, Elijah is not inclined to argue. There is a small number of vampires with their hands up, like white flags of surrender. They're Klaus's to deal with later, Elijah knows as he surveys the damage done. He carefully cleans the blood off his hands with his handkerchief. There are several hearts out of place, ripped free from their previous homes in arrogant chests. There are a few bodies missing heads, and Kol managed to stake quite a few as well.

"That was fun." Kol notes, and Elijah privately agrees. It had been a while since a large number of people thought they could fight him at once, let alone take him down. It was good for practice. He realizes, to his displeasure, that he will have to shower before he sees Elena.

* * *

He and Kol go home, their hybrid brother is firm in his assurances that he has everything under his control.

* * *

Rebekah and Caroline are pleased to see them, they're both sitting on the couch in Elena's room. As they leave the room, Elijah ruffles Kol's hair. He pretends to be annoyed, but he isn't bothered and Elijah knows that. But it's fun for Kol to see if he can do the same to Elijah.

He doesn't succeed before Elijah makes it to his bathroom.

* * *

He vows to mess up Elijah's hair at some point. He hears a quiet laugh through the sound of running water.

* * *

Rebekah and Caroline are out of Elena's room when he enters it again. He focuses on Elena, and slips into her mind, sitting next to her on the bed. He doesn't focus on anything else for a few hours.

* * *

He doesn't hear Caroline talk to his brother for a few minutes, Rebekah can practically taste the relief emanating off the young vampire.

* * *

Klaus notices it too. He'll talk to his sister about it later, but for the moment he enjoys Caroline's attention being focused on him.


	48. Chapter 48

AN: Reminder that I don't watch the Originals, so I am going to skip the whole Harvest Girl thing.

* * *

The next few weeks are full of fixing things. Marcel did a number on the city. Klaus has lost count of how many meetings he had to attend in them. He returned the girl who had been under Marcel's compulsion to report all magic in the Quarter to the witches. The witches form a council to keep order in New Orleans. Klaus gives them a few conditions to follow, nothing as heavy as what Marcel forced on them.

If a witch is trying to kill him, his family or anyone under their protection, he is justified in bringing them before the council or killing them. Depending on how bad the situation is. The other condition is that they will not track him. He does not want trouble with the witches, he wants peace. He grew up being raised by a witch, he reminds them. He respects them rather deeply for what they can do. As long as they don't try to overthrow his family's place over the younger vampires of the city, or end the world, he does not care. If they just live their lives in peace from fighting, and focus on New Orleans, their lives will not only be peaceful, but long.

* * *

Then the local werewolf pack cautiously contacts him on the day he has another meeting. Elijah offers to take the meeting with the witches, Klaus can deal with the werewolves.

It's almost a complete waste of time, he says at dinner. They merely wanted his assurance he would not turn them into hybrids. He wants to laugh. Not only is his supply of doppelganger blood extremely limited, but he has no interest in dealing with all of the sire bonds that would result. He wants genuine loyalty. He has very little patience for anything less.

* * *

Caroline spends time off and on with Elena, in her head.

* * *

Rebekah bets with Kol when Caroline's preoccupied. She has another of his houses, his second favorite car and one of his old swords. Kol has her second favorite pair of earrings and one of her tiaras, however, ensuring she won't sell his things. He just has to win them back.

* * *

The last meeting of the fortnight is to take a census of every vampire in the city. Caroline attends it with Kol and Rebekah. Elijah and Klaus have been setting up and working on it for a few hours. Although Rebekah's sure they did other things too, like talk about their baby vamps.

* * *

Caroline can't tear her eyes away when Klaus is in charge of the meeting. He looks good, and his accent is more pronounced when he gives a speech. He gives the vampires of New Orleans rules. Not very hard ones, at all. No killing in front of humans, not killing tourists if avoidable. No telling humans of their existence, no killing for food. They are not allowed to start a war with the witches or the werewolves. They all want peace, and he's going to make sure it stays peaceful.

* * *

No one has any doubt the hybrid means it.


	49. Sorry about the angst

AN: Reminder I have a poll for this story on my profile, and I will be updating this story tomorrow as well. Angst coming up!

* * *

He tells Elena, as she helps him sort his first room of memories in his mind palace, that the witches are trying to come up with a way for visiting vampires, witches and werewolves to know the rules. It's an interesting piece of magic they're working on, and she seems interested, but something's wrong. He can tell, but can't the source.

He almost regrets teaching Elena how to keep a good neutral face, she was an open book before he did. But it's hers to tell, and he won't push at it. She helps him sort through the little cubes of memories. His memory cubes are slightly smaller than hers, but she supposes that it's because he has more memories than she does. He catches her stare too long at the cube in her hands, and he assures her that Caroline is fine. She's just sleeping. Or she was before he went to see her.

She nods, and asks him to tell her about anything he hasn't mentioned. He tells her about Kol and Rebekah's series of bets and wagers, about how Finn and Sage are doing, and updates for her from Mystic Falls. Jeremy got a full baseball scholarship to the college he wanted. She raises and eyebrow and he admits Kol pulled a string and he had pulled a few as well. She thanks him, done with her pile of memories. He nods, and they work on another room before he has to leave, her room. His feelings have already been sorted, and she can't tell if she's concerned or proud he sorted them by himself. Feelings were hard, they tangled up so easily, the cubes would stick together until they were mentally separated.

* * *

But Klaus asks her to return him, and they return to her mind palace and she closes the door to his mind, and then send him back into the real world. She produces a marker, and writes on her outermost wall. She writes that she'll be asleep for a while, and not to try and enter her mind. They're welcome to visit her physical body, she'll be listening, but she's exhausted and if she sleeps she doesn't have to think. The neon purple is vibrant against the gray wall, and she moves herself to her mind palace.

Her walls are all in place, no doors at all. It's not to hurt Caroline or Elijah, really. But she just feels like laying in bed, and she doesn't think she can fool either of them if she stays awake. She doesn't want to cry to Caroline again, barely any time since she last cried in front of her, and she doesn't want Elijah to see her lose all of her shit either. She feels like she's almost there. Elijah and Caroline have their own lives, and she hopes they focus on them in the time they have in their schedule to do so. Since she won't fill a time slot in their days, they should have more fun. Feel better. She doesn't want them to feel stuck in her head like she does.

* * *

She closes her eyes as she pulls the comforter up.


	50. Chapter 50

AN: Klaroline in this chapter, and Elejah angst here. Sorry this took two days to work on, and sorry I will not be updating until Sunday night. I hope this was worth the wait!

* * *

He's more than a little concerned when Caroline calls him. She's only supposed to call when something goes terribly wrong, and the fact she's calling him instead of having Kol or Rebekah deal with it worries him.

"Hey is Elijah nearby, like hearing distance?" She asks him and he tells her that he's moving where no one can hear him.

"What is it? What's the matter?" He presses.

"Don't panic. It's not really that bad. It's Elena." She says and he relaxes, but not completely.

"What about Elena?" He asks.

"She's not letting anyone visit her mind for a week. What do we do with Elijah?" She's glad they've already has this chat. She hasn't admitted any feelings for the hybrid yet, but they both agree Elijah and Elena like each other. Caroline's just worried about how this will affect him. Elena probably just needs some alone time and sleep. She'll be okay.

Klaus pauses, and tells her that they'll all just need to keep an eye on the situation. He's not going to tell Elijah. She can tell him if it comes up, but it's best he sees for himself.

She agrees, and he wonders how his brother will react.

* * *

She takes Rebekah and they leave the house, Kol is reading a book Elijah recommended.

He texts Rebekah when Elijah arrives back home.

* * *

Elijah checks in with Kol, and Kol fails at his attempt to ruffle Elijah's hair. Elijah grins at him, and tells him that he'll be in Elena's head if his brother needs him. Kol nods and he watches his older brother disappear.

He has things to tell her, and he made progress on his mind palace he wants to show her. He asks her to lower her walls before he begins to match her breathing. He's a little alarmed when all he sees is gray stone.

"Elena?" He calls. She knows he's in there, if she didn't know already.

He waits, and something catches his eye a few feet away.

There's something that's bright purple on the walls. Elena's handwriting.

He reads it, wondering why she hadn't mentioned it to him before he left. He wishes she had just said she wanted space. Part of him wonders how she'll be after a week of being alone in her mind, but he knows logically she'll be fine. He won't mention it, but he's going to genuinely miss her. Conversations only worked when more than one person talked, he hopes she'll listen when he visits. He leaves her mind, and sits next to her.

* * *

Kol times it, it takes about twenty minutes for Elijah to enter in Elena's head, and then he comes out, five minutes later. He keeps Rebekah and Klaus updated on their brother.

* * *

Elijah is distracted, there's no other word for it.

* * *

When Kol shows that he's been reading _Catcher in the Rye,_ Elijah doesn't react like he should. When Caroline returns with Rebekah and a few bags full of chocolate, he asks her if Elena had said anything to her. She shakes her head, and he disappears to Elena's room to talk to her.

* * *

He's just confused, more than anything. He's not mad. He wonders aloud to her, and Klaus comes home after a long day of negotiations. He knows immediately, that Elijah is going to be out of action for the next week.

* * *

Elijah is fairly normal, but Rebekah can't remember the last time her brother mistook the time so severely. He's twelve hours early for a call he's waiting on, and she has to remind him that it's night.

* * *

He talks to Elena so often that it's almost alarming. But it's the same hours he usually spends in her mind, she's just not used to hearing him talk like that, in his Elena voice as Caroline calls it. His face gets softer and so does his voice, the blondes agree.

* * *

He goes for a drive with Caroline on the third day, and admits he finds himself wanting to be in Elena's company. Caroline assures him that she'll be fine, and she misses Elena like crazy too. He begins to correct her and she interrupts him. One look from a baby vampire and he's silent. He knows it's useless to pretend like he doesn't miss Elena, especially to Caroline.

So he doesn't, and they talk about other things as he decides to take her out for dinner. It's not until she's dragged him to a bakery to get cupcakes, a few hours later, that they talk about Elena.

There's only human tourists around, and she tells him about Elena, and some of her favorite memories. She sees him listen intently, he's so in love with Elena that it actually hurts her for a moment. He smiles as she tells stories, and he tells her a few about the time he spent teaching Elena how to be a vampire.

Caroline laughs when he tells her that Elena broke his blender on accident, and shattered a window. Elena had started to apologize profusely and he had just waved it off, saying he had been meaning to open the window anyway. Caroline laughs as hard as Elena did, and she begins to like the reserved vampire even more.

* * *

When Klaus calls, they go home, noting the late hour.

* * *

It seems that when Elena decided to sleep was the moment Elijah decided to stay awake. It's been six days of a slightly off Elijah, and Caroline doesn't think he's slept for any of them. She tells Klaus as she offers access to the chocolate box she's working on, that she's worried. He tells her that he can't remember the last time Elijah was so out of sorts over a woman, as he decides on a truffle. Elijah is in love with her. Neither of them say it, but they both know it. Caroline has told him that Elena doesn't do anything half hearted, and she's interested in Elijah as well. But being in a coma restricts them, it's not likely she'll confess her feelings unless she's awake and able to move her body again.

He nods, and they listen for a moment, hearing the sounds of the house. Kol is reading aloud, Rebekah is painting her nails and listening to music Caroline likes, and Elijah is rapidly speaking Greek on a business call.

Caroline takes a bite of a chocolate, and Klaus compliments her on her choice. He likes cherries in chocolate too.

* * *

She's glad they're taking this slow, she likes just spending time with Klaus. He's a good conversationalist, and he's full of stories that make her laugh. But sometimes, he just sits with her while she sits in bed and eats chocolate for breakfast. There's no pressure from him, at all. No pressure to rush or explain what she's doing with her day. He has promised, a proper date when all of the treaties and talks of maintaining peace were over with. She can't wait. Rebekah knows what it is but won't tell her. They did go shopping and she has the dress she bought in her closet ready to go. It's odd to be in the same house as the Originals.

On one hand, she recognizes them as the powerful vampires they are, but she's forced to remember that they are people too. She almost laughs the first time she sees Kol try to work the toaster, swearing in English. He had almost shouted in a few more languages before she pressed a button and it had worked again. They may be inhuman at times, but their humanity is still there, and very strong. Their humanity is apparent to her anyway. She's aware that she sees them more vulnerable than anyone else ever gets a glimpse of.

As she looks at Klaus, she realizes she's comfortable with it.


	51. Chapter 51

AN: So instead of S4, Elena turned, and called Elijah. They stayed in Mystic Falls and he helped her transition. None of the other plot stuff they put into anything past that in the show will be in this fic.

* * *

She tells him the she's going to talk with Elijah after his call is over. He nods, it's a good idea. She's already explained her behavior towards Elena to him. Elijah needs to understand, it's just how Elena works. As he is in love with her, knowing how Elena does things is important. She's not going to say it like _that_ , but she might as well start to shift into getting him ready for a relationship with Elena, someday. Caroline can also see them dancing around each other for a while, but she doesn't care about that as much. She just wants them to be happy. She needs Elijah to understand Elena so he doesn't get upset at her.

* * *

She just leans into him, and they're still for a few moments. She hasn't asked where he wants their relationship to go, she wonders if what they're doing can be considered a relationship. Whatever it is, she wants to see where it will lead. She and Klaus have nothing but time.

"Can you teach me how to draw after I talk to Elijah?" She asks and he gives her a grin that makes her want to kiss him. If she's going to spend so much time with an artist, she might as well learn something.

"I can." He doesn't say it as such, but it is a promise. Caroline seems to understand that, and she gives him a smile as she gets off her bed. Elijah's just finished his phone call.

* * *

He hears that Caroline wants to speak with him, so he waits. She seeks him out like he thought she would, he's putting his phone in his pocket as she enters the room.

"Can you come with me to get cupcakes?" She asks. The last time they ate cupcakes together, they were away from listening ears and talked about Elena. He assumes that's her plan again. He nods.

"Of course."

They walk to the bakery they had driven to the last time. He tells her when they're out of hearing range of any other vampires. She tells him that he shouldn't be mad at Elena, if he is.

He indicates that he's listening as they cross the street and she continues.

* * *

She hopes he isn't mad about Elena's week of her mental walls being up. It's just something Elena does. When she needs space, she wants it from everyone. The week her parents died, she didn't speak to anyone who didn't live at her house until she had to at the funeral.

She gave him an example, hoping he'd follow the breadcrumb hints she's trying to give. She gives another example. She can see that he doesn't understand it. The three days before they started high school, Elena didn't talk to anyone. She talked to her and Bonnie on the first day, and it had been fine after that.

She's just confusing him.

She asks if he talked to Elena at all in the two days after she died before Klaus daggered him. He shakes his head. She lost Jenna, John and Stefan in the span of a week. She didn't talk to anyone outside of Alaric and Jeremy for a week. She had asked for space, and she and Bonnie had given it. She asks if he sees the connecting thing to the examples. He shakes his head. He's not sure if it's just Caroline, or that he's sure he's overthinking it.

"Elena does this when her life changes in a way she deems is drastic. She's not trying to hurt you, she's not trying to hurt me. She just wanted a week to actually adjust to what her life is going to be like for a few decades. She'll be fine. And if she isn't, we'll help her. Right?" It might not be okay for a while, but she's going to help Elena however she can. She knows she's not alone. She just needs to remind Elena she isn't either.

Elijah just nods. He now knows that Elena retreating for solitude is normal. It's what she does, part of who she is. She does not give anyone warning. He misses her, however. He asks if she'll want company after the week is done. Caroline nods. She has a feeling Elijah and Elena need to talk. But she pulls him by the hand into the bakery. She wants his help on picking out a cupcake for Kol.

* * *

Caroline is kind, and he appreciates her attempts to keep him occupied. They get a box of cupcakes, a half dozen. Caroline is going to leave one for Elena's nurse. She's never talked to her before, but wants to thank her for taking care of her friend.

* * *

They walk home, it's strange for Caroline to think of the building she lives in with the Originals as home quite yet. There's still a part of her that stubbornly thinks that the title of home should go to Mystic Falls. But it's home, at least for a while. So she opens the front door and carefully begins delivering cupcakes to his siblings. He watches Rebekah smile as Caroline knowingly hands her a double chocolate cupcake. Kol thanks her before he bites into his, and Klaus grins at her.

She'll tell Elena about this later, eating cupcakes with the oldest vampires on the planet was in her top ten weirdest experiences. At least, so far. They're all vampires, she's sure something will replace it someday.

* * *

Till then, she's going to enjoy her cupcake.


	52. Chapter 52

AN: I had someone mention that it's more likely for Elena to withdraw because of guilt, but the last chapter was fairly Caroline centric and that's how Caroline perceived it. Sorry this chapter is so short, I will not be updating tomorrow, but will update on Thursday.

* * *

Elijah tells her when it's been a week. He didn't know if she wanted a full seventh day or not, but he sits and waits. He carefully enters her mind, wondering what he will find.

He finds walls, and tells her that it's been a week. He hopes she'll lower them soon enough, he's been worried about her for seven days. He places his hand on smooth stone and waits.

* * *

She blinks blearily, and waves her hand to lower her walls. Hopefully Elijah will understand and just come up. She hadn't thought of how hard it would be to pull herself out of sleep, doing it too long made it harder to leave. She closes her eyes, and wills the front door to open. She can hear Elijah, her limbs are too heavy to move at the moment. She hears him open her bedroom door and quietly say her name.

"Hey." She murmurs, her voice rough from disuse. She asks him to sit next to her. His shoes disappear before he can move, and he settles next to her the seconds after that.

"Hello there." He says, and she blinks a few times. Her eyelids should not feel this heavy after sleeping, honestly. She wants to complain, but grins at his words. She explains her tiredness and asks how his week was, what he didn't tell her because there were other people able to listen to him talk to her.

He tells her that he didn't do much, he dealt with contracts and got cupcakes with Caroline. She sighs in frustration, and manages to get out of bed. He mirrors her, but doesn't sigh. She tells him he was supposed to live his life.

He tells her he was.

She shakes her head.

* * *

She doesn't want to take up all of his time, she explains. It's not fair for her to expect him or Caroline to spend so much time with her. They have their own lives, they were supposed to take advantage of not having to talk to her.

She blinks rapidly, and he moves forward and wraps her in a hug. It reminds him of her first weeks as a vampire. He may not know Elena like Caroline does, inside and out, but he does know what comes after this. He doesn't want Elena to feel alone, because she isn't. He's not sure if she wants the hug, but he just holds her as she shakes and he tells her that of course he and Caroline are going to spend a lot of time with her, she's their friend. They care about her, and would spend that much time with her even if she wasn't in the coma she's in. The notion that she's taking up too much of their time is considerate but false. She sniffles and tells him she missed them. She missed him and she missed Caroline.

She wanted them to live their lives and put her on the back burner, she feels like she consumes so much time that it's unfair to them, but he counters that it's unfair to her if they do that. She's a social person who likes being around people and wants interaction. The least he and Caroline can do is try to provide that. Plus, Bonnie will come at some point, and she'll visit too. She just puts her face in his shoulder and he just adjusts his arms around her. They have a lot to talk about. But for now, he knows she needs this. So he gives it and she takes it.


	53. Chapter 53

AN: I am sorry this is so short and terrible, and I will not be working on this fic until Monday. I will be posting this weekend, however.

* * *

She asks him to tell her what she really missed, and he tells her of the changes in New Orleans, and in the world. He tells her about the cupcakes. She yawns, and tells him it's hard to sleep for a week. While her brain was active while sleeping, it was harder to get out of after a few days. Turning off her awake switch for so long made it harder to find and turn back on. He looks intrigued, and she realizes he hasn't told her something. He hadn't mentioned sleep at all.

"Did you sleep since I last saw you?" She asks, adjusting one of the quilts covering them. She moved them out of her room, couldn't stand to look at her bed any longer, but the couch in her ideal living room is fair game.

"I did not. I had pressing things to attend to, and I can go without sleep longer than a mere six days, Elena." He's trying to convince her that it was a good choice. She just raises a disapproving eyebrow.

"You need sleep." She reminds him, as if he didn't think about sleep at all while she was sleeping for a week. He just gives her a grin.

"I am aware of that, lovely Elena."

"Good." She says, and they hear something. Elena focuses.

* * *

It's Caroline, saying that Bonnie, Jeremy and Alaric are coming in a week. Elijah looks at Elena and sees her face light up. A little, selfish part of him wishes he could have time with Elena more frequently than he does. Caroline tells them that she'll come back and get Elijah when it's time, and after that, she wants in Elena's head. Elena stifles a giggle and then Caroline is gone. She wants to talk with him about serious, heavy things but he looks happy albeit tired, and she can't bring herself to do it. She just puts her head on his shoulder again and admits this whole coma business was harder than she had previously thought. He reminds her she's not alone. He's right, but her problems are too heavy to share at the moment. She yawns, trying to wake up, and he yawns out of tiredness. She wants to laugh at that, but she just sits next to Elijah, and sends him out when Caroline says they need him for a meeting with the other supernatural leaders. He promises to see her tomorrow, and she nods.

* * *

When Caroline asks to see her, she lowers her walls. She has to explain why she slept for a week. What Caroline told Elijah was almost close, but it wasn't. She admits that doing so again could help everyone free up their schedules to lives their lives. Caroline is mad where Elijah was not, and tells Elena her idea was stupid. Elijah was off his game while she was sleeping. She missed Elena like crazy, and tells her a week without her wasn't fun. They're in this together, and she looks at Elena for a moment before she understands something.

"You didn't tell Elijah how you feel about being here." It's not a question, Caroline knows she didn't tell him. Her face has guilty written all over it in Caroline's mind. Elena admits that she doesn't know how to tell him. Elijah already seems worried about her as it is. Admitting that she's terrified she'll go insane isn't really something that's casual conversation worthy. Caroline tells her that Elijah will be fine.

It's hers to tell, Caroline says and lets the topic drop. She mentions the call from Bonnie, and Elena grins. Trust Bonnie to find the spell to get into someone's mind completely, out of the thousands of spells in the world. She's excited about Jeremy and Ric coming, she wants to talk to them. She didn't think she was going to be able to, the fact that she can see them again makes things better. She talks to Caroline for a long time, until the blonde yawns and Elena sends her out.

* * *

She sorts memories until she hears Elijah, begin to speak. Then he yawns, and she waits for him to continue for a few minutes, but then realizes he fell asleep. She's not sure if she's relieved or if she wanted to talk to him. Having him fall asleep in her mind while she was uninterested in sleep didn't sound like a good idea, but she wonders if he had something to tell her.

She just sorts and listens to the playlist that's going, about some revolutionary new car.


	54. Chapter 54

AN: I'm so sorry but I will only be able to update tonight, Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday afternoon. I'm working 25 hours this week plus 40 hours get taken up by school- I do not have that much free time but that isn't spent on hw will be spent on this.

* * *

He wakes up when he hears glass shattering, immediately awake. He hears Kol curse about stupid humans and their fragile food packaging in the kitchen, and his tense body relaxes. Elena, he remembers, looking over at her. His memory takes a second to catch up with him. He was going to talk to Elena, before he fell asleep. He pauses the playlist, and asks Elena to lower her walls for him. He's unable to hide the yawn that escapes his throat as he asks. It's almost a challenge to keep his eyes open, now that he knows it's just Kol, his body is intent on returning to sleep.

He focuses on staying awake, and on Elena. It's not an easy task, he can hear Kol cooking, Rebekah is humming and Caroline is laughing. Surprisingly, his brother is laughing with her. The realization that Niklaus is laughing and happy at the moment makes him pause, but since he is laughing with Caroline in her room, he isn't going to intrude.

He returns his focus back to Elena, and enters her mind. He has so much to tell her, he runs through his list as he walks to her mind palace, but he wonders when he doesn't have a long list of things to tell her. He enters the house, unsure where she is. He leaves his mind open, he has something in mind that he wants to show her. He worked hard adapting it for her while she was gone, unsure how well it would work.

He sees her as his eyes close, and he wishes he wasn't so exhausted.

* * *

She moves him with little effort to a couch without touching him. He must be exhausted. She moves his hands so they don't dangle off the couch, and his mind blends with hers for a moment. She got an image. A city. Elijah has told her she has an all access pass to almost every room in his mind palace, she thinks as she debates investigating further. It hadn't felt like a dream, she had felt Elijah's dreams before. It felt like the time he had shown her the stars. She moves them to her ideal living room, and sits in a chair next to him, before hesitantly taking one of his larger hands in hers.

* * *

It's an interactive city, she discovers. She can't tell what city, but she soaks in the sunlight and the people, all of her senses are pleased while simultaneously being overloaded. She likes the feeling.


	55. Chapter 55

She can tell when Elijah wakes up, the interactive city shifts slightly, and she finds him next to her. She thanks him for the city and asks if he slept well. He nods, and she smiles at him and he stops thinking for a moment. He updates her on things he thinks she'd be interested in. Caroline will go back to Mystic Falls with Bonnie, Jeremy and Alaric when their visit comes to an end.

Just for a few days. He shows her his mind palace, and is carefully unbiased as he tells her of the developments between his brother and Caroline. He updates her on the status of New Orleans and the Salvatores, still in Italy. He tells her everything he can think of, and gives her a tour of his mind palace. She notes the new details, and room with her name on it. She's curious but doesn't push.

They talk, for what seems like hours, but Elena can never really tell the time anymore-and the words she wants to say get trapped in back of her throat. It takes a few times to swallow them back down again, until she's ready to say them.


	56. Chapter 56

AN: Hey sorry this took so long! Life is crazy busy and I hope you all enjoy this chapter!

* * *

Caroline asks Elijah to leave Elena's mind, just for an hour. Elijah nods, and Elena hates doing this. She hates picking one of them to have in her mind, when Elijah comes back she'll ask him if he's ever dealt with two minds instead of one.

He tells her he'll see her shortly, an hour is barely any time to spend in her mind. She nods and sends him out. She waits for Caroline to enter her head.

"I have a date with Klaus in two hours." The blonde says as soon as she knows Elena can hear her.

"That's great, Care." She says and means it.

"So you aren't taking back your approval or anything, right? Because if you don't want me to date him, I won't." Caroline says in a rush. She's worried that Elena's approval was conditional, but before Elena can open her mouth Caroline speaks.

She tells Elena how she feels. She tells her about his patience, and understanding of her need for space. She tells Elena about their occasional breakfasts, how he always seems to see through her and how they challenge each other. It's easy for her to picture spending time with him. A lot of time. She's not breathing properly, and Elena can tells she's getting overwhelmed by her feelings. She reminds Caroline to breathe, and makes her take deep breaths.

Caroline sketches the dress she's wearing on the date, and Elena helps her figure out what to do with her hair. She knows most of what she wants to do, it's just calming to have Elena help her. Elena's always the calming, reassuring voice of reason when Caroline panics like this.

Elena asks her to return after her time with Klaus is over, she wants details. If Elena was the one going on a date, Caroline would ask for the exact same thing. She's just sad she won't get to help Caroline get ready, like they used to do.

Caroline tells her that there will be plenty more dates when Elena wakes up. Dates between Elijah and Elena probably, but Caroline doesn't mention that.

Elijah's voice interrupts their thoughts. Elena gives her friend a hug and wishes her luck.

* * *

When Elijah returns, he tells her he was helping Klaus get things ready for the date. Elena grins, and asks him what he thinks of Klaus and Caroline as a couple. From what Caroline's told her, they work well together, but she wants Elijah's opinion.

He thinks they make sense, Caroline seems to accept his brother as he is. She didn't try to change his rules, or his nature. She's accepted him as he is, which is a quality Elijah thinks Klaus needs in a romantic interest. Or even just a friend, but it's hard to find genuine friends when in a position of power as their family is. Romance is even harder. He does not look at Elena's eyes when he says that, he's been carefully looking around her room, politely. He's sure she won't mind.


	57. First Date

AN: Just Klaroline this chapter, and sorry I haven't been good about updating anything lately, I have a lot on my plate right now and I'm doing the best I can. I hope you guys enjoy this chapter!

* * *

She's impressed, if he asks, she'll admit it. It's odd to see him in a suit, Elena's the one who likes the Original who always wears a suit but Klaus cleans up nicely. The entire thing, in her planning oriented mind, is perfect.

The restaurant is quiet, candlelight and live music. The food is amazing, but what really makes it for her, is Klaus. She can see herself dating anyone who she wants, she can see years of dates that are set up perfectly, and going through the different stages of a relationship with different people. But she doesn't think any of that can compare to the hybrid sitting across from her.

She doesn't really want to do any of those things with anyone but him. She can't stop smiling and laughing, and he grins in return.

There's a moment after they finish dinner that she wonders what's next, and she opens her mouth to ask. He stands up, and extends his arm to her.

"Would you dance with me, Caroline?" He asks and just like that, her nervousness is gone.

They mimic the other dancers, and he reminds her of the time they had danced in Mystic Falls. It seems like eons ago, everything there was so tense and rushed. But here, in this restaurant, it seems like they have eternity to spin and remember the steps. The faster tempo is replaced with a slower one, and he carefully pulls her closer. She doesn't mind, and she ends up placing her head on his shoulder for a time, mindful of the steps.

* * *

She ends up kissing him, before she says goodnight and retreats to Elena's room. He's an amazing kisser and she loses track of time until they hear Kol and Rebekah swearing at each other. She breaks away and says a quiet goodnight, with a genuine smile.

* * *

He walks to his own room, keen on changing out of the suit he's wearing. His date with Caroline went swimmingly, and doesn't hear the betting of his two younger siblings.

* * *

"I called it. I bet you your house in Moscow that Caroline would go to Elena after the date, before changing." Kol says and Rebekah sighs. She dials a number and asks one of her lawyers to send legal papers when he can. Her lawyer agrees, and she sighs again as Kol lets out a whoop of victory.


	58. Chapter 58

Elijah asks if she wants to work on his mind palace with him, and she agrees. She's aware she is closer to Elijah than most could ever be, she's in his mind after all, but the same rings true for her. She wants to see more of his mind palace, it's a peek into his mind that very few will ever see.

She's helping him organize when they hear Caroline ask Elijah to leave again, for another hour. They've made good progress, and are at a good stopping place, Elijah tells her. They carefully move back into Elena's head, and he asks if she wants to watch a movie when he returns. He feels presumptuous for assuming she'd want Caroline to leave, and that she'd want him to come back, but she smiles and agrees to it.

He tells her he'll see her soon and lets her send him out.

* * *

There's a few minutes of silence as she waits for Caroline to enter her mind, so she plays music and walks to the front door. It doesn't take too long for her to catch sight of a flash of blonde hair.

Caroline tells her everything, about the absolute perfection of the date and updates Elena on everything she can think of, including Rebekah and Kol's betting habits. She reminds Elena that there's four days until Alaric, Jeremy and Bonnie come and Elena asks her to make sure they feel welcome. She can't do anything while stuck in her mind, she has a feeling after their visit is over, she'll be exhausted. That's at least four people in her head, hopefully Elijah won't let her get overloaded. They all have to enter her mind separately, she doesn't think she can handle more than that. Regardless of the spell, she doesn't think she's mentally capable of sharing her mind palace with more than one person.

Caroline nods and talks about scheduling, which she'll be on top of, and then yawns and tells Elena goodnight. Elena says goodnight as well, despite the fact she won't be sleeping and sends Caroline out of her mind.

* * *

She moves to the front door to wait for Elijah.


	59. Lack of a Movie Sequel

Elijah grins and they walk into his mind, he apologizes for the cluttered mess one of the hallways is, and she waves it off. He has a lot to think about, all the time. She's not surprised his mind palace is a little messy. He lists out a few movies until she chooses one to watch, and he leads her through an unmarked door.

* * *

There's a projector, and a couch. She appreciates that there isn't a reminder of popcorn or blood, she wishes she could feel hunger. But the only things she feels are emotional, so she doesn't mention it as she sits next to him and the movie begins to play.

She sits closer to him than really needed, but she misses physical contact and he doesn't seem to mind that her side is pressed into his.

* * *

The movie is good, and she asks him if there's a sequel. There isn't, and she sighs in disappointment.

She tells him she'll help sort more of his mind palace if he wants, and he almost tells her that part of the clutter is just his fault. His feelings for her need to be locked up and kept secret, she doesn't love him. They are just friends and he needs to accept it. But sometimes she looks at him like she has something to say and he wants to press at that, but he doesn't. He can't. She has a few more decades to live, like this. If he admits he has feelings and she does not feel the same way, then it becomes awkward. He'd rather bleed internally than give Elena pain like that.

He wishes for a moment, that he could just get over her. But she smiles as she holds up a memory of him with longer hair and clothes a few centuries old, and he can't help but grin at her.

* * *

He'll move on, he decides. When he's shown her all she wants to see, as their deal a while ago had stated, he'll leave. Disappear until he's fallen out of love with her, and see her after that.

As he watches her brush hair out of her face, he realizes that the moment he's thinking of will be far away for a fairly long time.


	60. Breaking Point

AN: I mean, this has to wear on Elena. This can't be easy for her to do and live through. Sad ahead.

* * *

It's odd, she thinks as they look around his mind palace. They're adding last minute adjustments, but she feels like they would have normally been interrupted by now. She voices this and he pauses. They focus for any noise from the outside world, but hear nothing. They keep listening, as he adjusts paintings and little details.

"I guess we're a little off on our time." Elena says and he agrees with her judgement, hesitantly.

She counts forty eight minutes and twenty seven seconds before Elijah decides that there's no point in waiting for him to be called back to the real world. They've gone everywhere in his mind palace but her room, he can't let her in there yet. The feelings are all tangled with memories and he doesn't want her to know how he feels about her.

But, he does turn to her and asks her to name something she misses.

"Ice cream." She says and he nods with approval, taking her hand.

* * *

She closes her eyes and waits for the familiar sensation of traveling into a memory to stop.

They're in the twenty four ice cream shop near Mystic Falls. She grins and they get ice cream. She grins at him and eats her ice cream and is about to ask him to take her back to the store when she is back in the real world when she stops. He stops, and asks what's wrong.

* * *

The shop most likely won't be there by the time she gets out,so many things that she knows and loves will be gone by then. She just tells him that she misses ice cream, and carefully continues eating for a few moments. He watches carefully, and doesn't press.

She takes a deep breath when she's out of ice cream, and admits that it isn't just the ice cream. It's the fact that the shop they're in will probably be closed before she has the chance to go back again, it's the fact she won't be able to vote for a few decades, that everything will change and she will be forced to stay the same, and after a while she's sure the novelty of visiting her mind will wear off and he and Caroline will find better things to do with their time. She's scared of being alone for more than a week, she's scared of being forgotten and frozen and left behind. She's not aware that she's crying until she's pressed against him, and she moves her head into his neck. She's not okay, and it was exhausting to pretend that she was. She can't stop telling him all of it, everything that's wrong.

It's all scary, being alone so often bothers her, but there's nothing she can do. She didn't mind being alone really, but she hates being lonely. She misses everything, she even misses commercials and the feeling of grass under her feet. It seems like her list goes on for centuries and she keeps apologizing to him between things she misses as the tears keep coming.

* * *

She's so scared that Jeremy will die before she wakes up, so scared she'll miss Ric's funeral and it's all so much that he just holds her close. There's too much for him to address at one time and she doesn't stop adding to her list. He doesn't want to interrupt, but he moves them out of the memory of the ice cream shop, back into his mind palace.

* * *

He lets her talk and cry until she can't anymore, and waits a long time before speaking.


	61. Chapter 61

He had always prided himself on his ability to keep his loved ones safe, but he can't do anything for Elena. He can't remember a time he was ever this concerned for her.

"I'm sorry." He murmurs into her hair. She just releases a shaky breath and he begins to try and fix what he can.

* * *

He tells her that things coming in and out of existence is natural. Vampires especially were prone to miss things.

He still misses a bookshop that used to exist in Prague a few centuries ago, until the owner died and it closed. There's a restaurant there now, he tells her. He had loved that bookshop, and he asks her if she's okay with him showing her something. She nods against his shoulder. He moves them into one of his memory rooms, and asks her to look at it. She looks over her shoulder to see a smiling man, with a few wrinkles in a kind face. There are bookshelves all around and she realizes he never forgot about this place. The thought makes her want to cry again, and a few escape. It's only in his mind now, the man who owned the shop is dead and gone.

He tells her that there is beauty in things of the past, and that life is constantly changing. It's always moving, no matter how much one tries to stop it. Just because it's gone doesn't mean he can't remember it, doesn't mean it's not beautiful anymore. The fact it doesn't exist anymore doesn't diminish the fact that it once did and it was wonderful.

There will be change, and she will have to exist with it being present in her life. It's okay to hold onto things, it's okay to worry and it's okay to miss things. But as much as they want to, they can't live in memories forever. She's going to change like the outside world will and that's okay. It's going to be okay, and if it isn't, they'll wait it out until it is, and make it okay.

He promises to stay and visit her as long as she wants him to, and that he won't let Ric or Jeremy die. He revises that last statement, and tells her he won't let them die a permanent death, they do have those handy rings to keep them alive after all.

He offers solutions to the problems he thinks he can help with and asks what she wants him to do for the others.

She thanks him and tries to think logically.

It hurts, growing up hurts, and she had never thought any part of her life would be like this. But she remembers that this is her life and she just has to keep living it. She thanks Elijah for his help, and she admits she wants his help with her problems, and for the ones he can't fix, she just wants him to listen to her talk about them when she asks.

It's more than agreeable, he'll do anything for her. All she has to do is ask. She moves away from him and spends a few minutes exploring the shop he loved so much and asks him questions about it, about life.

* * *

They end up in the movie room, sitting together. Her eyes are closed and her head is against his shoulder. He doesn't leave her for a long time.


	62. Rebekah

Rebekah realizes they're missing a brother a day before their house is to be filled with three Mystic Falls residents. She realizes that he's with Elena when she hears the nurse open the door to Elena's room.

* * *

She decides to wait until after dinner. If Elijah isn't out by then, she'll get him out and make him drink some blood.

She tells the other residents of the house not to disturb them, although she walks in on Klaus painting Caroline to do so.

If Caroline was human, she would have flushed scarlet at Rebekah's remark that she really didn't care that Caroline was sitting for a portrait, just as long as she didn't walk in on her brother drawing her like one of his French girls.

It takes Caroline thirty minutes to recognize the Titanic reference and to recognize that Klaus was not drawing French girls. At least not this century.

* * *

Rebekah worries slightly for Elena and Elijah. He's in love with her and she's in a coma. The coma Elena's in can't be easy either. She always wondered what had changed, what she had lost when she was undaggered again. Elena is aware of the world, of the people visiting and what they tell her. That might be even harder. All of the people coming to visit in a day will be dead within a century. Elena is young, and she can't imagine having that fate. But she remembers she was already a vampire when she was Elena's age. All perspective, she supposes.

* * *

They're all trying to give Elena and Elijah space, and Rebekah tells Kol that she will won't be on Elena and Elijah's relationship. At least not until Elena's awake and in the world of the living again. Then she'll give her grief like she gives Caroline.


	63. Chapter 63

AN: I'm sorry this is so short, I've just been in a funk for a few days, I promise to update this again by Thursday night!

* * *

She tells him that she'll be dreaming after he leaves. If he wants to come visit, she won't have any walls up. He nods and she tells him to take his time. He can't just focus on her, neither he or Caroline can spend their lives in her head with her. Real life calls, and she reminds him that he probably needs to eat. He agrees, and she sends him out.

* * *

He sits, and eats with the rest of them. He wants to look at Caroline and ask, ask if she knew how badly Elena was doing and why she hasn't told him. But her gaze is focused on Klaus, so Elijah doesn't bring it up. It's not proper dinner conversation, after all.

Caroline brings up the topic their guests arriving the next day. Everything's ready, and she reminds them what to expect. She's also partially reminding herself as she speaks.

She doesn't have Bonnie's approval promise. She has it from Elena, but she's not sure how Bonnie is going to take her relationship with Klaus. Bonnie's approval isn't going to stop her from liking Klaus, but she's never had a real relationship without it.

She's an adult, she reminds herself. She only needs her own approval on her relationships.

* * *

Elijah asks if they can get cupcakes after dinner, in a text. She texts back that of course they can.

She texts Jeremy to ask what time they think they'll be near New Orleans and wonders why Elijah wants to talk to her about Elena.


	64. A New Understanding

Kol and Rebekah tell her what kind of cupcakes they want, and Caroline makes a note of it. Klaus kisses her on the cheek before she walks out the door after Elijah. She's almost alarmed how easily this comes to her.

* * *

As soon as they're out of hearing distance of his family, he begins to speak. He wants to know why she didn't tell him Elena wasn't doing as well as he had thought. She tells him that she didn't think it was her place to tell him. Elena needed to tell him those things.

He understands her reasoning, and it makes sense. But Elena is hurting, and he needs to know what her plan is. They need to make it better, and they have less than a day before Elena has to convince three people that she's fine.

Elena's stuck like this for a few more decades, not including if Bonnie uses a spell or two to live longer. The thought is not safe with Elijah, and so he lets it float away. He can't be angry, he needs to focus on Elena. He wouldn't wish what she has to go through on anyone.

They both are silent after that, their heads are full of heavy thoughts. It's not until they're near the bakery that he mentions he's going to see Elena again. He'll ask her what she needs and do whatever he can. Caroline nods. She wonders if the spell Bonnie plans to use will work like how they enter Elena's head. Elijah responds that it should work like that, he read the spell and has the ingredients for Bonnie.

Then, they reach the bakery and have to switch topics. As they pick out cupcakes, Caroline mentions that Bonnie, Alaric and Jeremy should be in New Orleans around ten o'clock the next morning. He digests the information as he pays for the cupcakes. Caroline carries the box, and they talk about their soon to be arriving guests. She promises to be the perfect hostess, they do not need to interact with them more than they want. They're staying for a week and then she's leaving with them to see her mom, she reminds him. He nods, and wonders what kind of mood his brother will be in during her absence.

They walk home, a little faster than they did on the way there, and she talks about anything she thinks would interest him. She asks him to ask Elena about audio books, perhaps. Elena had to miss books, she knows that for sure.

He makes a note of it and they walk back with an understanding of sorts.

* * *

He's careful as he rouses her from her dream, and she moves them to her living room to talk.

All Elena really wants is to pretend like she has physical contact with someone and to talk. So they talk, for hours and he mentions Caroline's ideas.


	65. Relationships are hard

AN: I am so sorry I didn't update before this, I had a lot going on and got sick for a while. But I will be updating my stories regularly from now on. To make up for the long time between updates, have a long chapter!

* * *

As much as Caroline mentioned it, Rebekah thought she was prepared to have three humans in her house, she isn't. There's cheese and other human food by her blood bags and she decides to escape with a shopping spree.

* * *

Caroline and Klaus carefully escort them into the city, and Caroline really does have everything under control. She shows them all their respective bedrooms, and Alaric is the first human to fall asleep. As Caroline's showing them their rooms, he moves onto the bed and falls asleep right there. Jeremy tells her Ric drove there for most of the time.

After that, he had taken over driving and Bonnie had slept the entire way there. Bonnie asks to see Elena, after she and Jeremy put their bags in their rooms.

Elijah appears before Caroline can open the door. He warns Bonnie not to have more than one person in Elena's mind at once. She mentally waves it off but tells him she won't.

Elijah tells Caroline that he'll be off recording something, and Jeremy wonders if Elijah has a secret music career no one ever mentioned, but tucks the thought away. Caroline nods and wishes him good luck.

Bonnie tells Jeremy he can go first, she doesn't voice it aloud, but she needs time to still to figure out what the hell she wants to say to Elena.

She asks Caroline where Elijah put the spell ingredients, but Caroline just opens the door and they get their first view of Elena in weeks.

She's so dead looking that it hurts. Her chest still rises, but she's got an IV in her arm and it's obvious someone else did her hair. At least the room still smells like her perfume. Not all of Elena is lost. Jeremy shakes the thought away. His sister is lying on that bed, all of her. They didn't lose any of her.

Caroline and Jeremy carefully watch as Bonnie does the spell, after asking Caroline a few times if it was safe to do magic in New Orleans again. Caroline tells her it is. They want to ask about a few other things, like what's up with Klaus and how Caroline is doing, but the questions don't come out.

Bonnie recites the spell, and Caroline speaks softly to Elena, words that are too quiet for Jeremy to hear. Then he doesn't hear at all for a moment.

* * *

There's a house, he sees when he opens his eyes. He almost thinks it looks familiar, but he's never seen it before. Jeremy sees the outline of someone standing in the doorway. The person moves faster than a human is physically capable of doing, and when he's being hugged almost too tightly, he knows who it is.

He hugs his sister and she lets a few tears escape her eyes as she begins to speak.

* * *

It's been a few hours since Jeremy first entered Elena's mind. Bonnie hates waiting. Caroline sympathizes, and tells her she knows the feeling. She has to wait for Elijah to leave Elena's mind so she can talk to her almost daily.

That piece of information is so new and startling that it distracts Bonnie. She asks what's going on between Elijah and Elena. Caroline takes a deep breath and begins to explain.

As interesting as it is to hear about Elijah and Elena, Bonnie can understand that relationship a lot easier than Caroline and _Klaus._ She asks if Elena approves of Caroline's relationship with the person who made her life hell for so long. Bonnie wonders if Caroline needs the reminder that Klaus had killed Jenna, Isobel, and countless others. Clearly, Caroline has forgotten. So she reminds her of everything. Klaus had actually _killed_ Elena. Did Caroline even remember that?

The hopeful feeling in her stomach sinks as she realizes that Bonnie isn't going to accept her relationship with Klaus. Or at the very least, she's not going to listen to Caroline explain it.

She's saved by Jeremy's sudden, gasping breaths. She's never been so thankful for the fact Jeremy still distracts Bonnie.

After Bonnie has confirmation about the spell and that Jeremy actually talked to Elena, she says that she and Caroline will have a long talk after she talks to Elena. The spell is performed and Jeremy and Caroline are silent, watching to make sure the spell goes perfectly.

When Bonnie closes her eyes, Jeremy asks if it's okay to leave. He's starving, a side effect of the spell. Caroline smiles apologetically and tells him that she expected something like that to happen. It takes a lot out of her sometimes to stay in Elena's mind and that even Elijah got worn out from being in Elena's mind too long. It's something she expected, and she knows the perfect restaurant to go to.

She tells him that Kol is home and Klaus would be home in a few minutes. Elena and Bonnie won't be unprotected if they left. She tells him it's within walking distance, and he tells her that they should leave a note for Ric, and that he needs to get his jacket.

* * *

She writes the note as Jeremy puts on his jacket, and leaves it on top of Ric's now charging phone.

As they walk, Jeremy asks what the hell Bonnie was talking about before she entered Elena's mind.

Caroline sighs and begins to explain, quietly. There aren't any vampires she's aware of in the vicinity, but she doesn't want anyone to eavesdrop. She explains what had happened from the time she had entered New Orleans to the disagreement, with a few pauses. They enter the restaurant, and get seated in a booth near the bar. They order drinks, Caroline orders some drink Jeremy's never heard of before. The waiter tries to ask to see her ID, but she's not in the mood to deal with it. So she compels him to recognize her as being old enough to drink. He agrees and tells them that he'll be right back with their drinks.

Jeremy is about to chastise her for that, but she tells him she doesn't have ID on her and he's hungry and she didn't want to get kicked out of one of her favorite restaurants. Plus, she just needs a drink.

She begins to explain again, and then their drinks arrive, a moment later. She orders a large appetizer, meant for more than just two people. The waiter tries to tell her it's meant to feed six people, and she tells him she and her friend are perfectly capable of eating that much. He reluctantly puts the order in, and Jeremy looks at the menu.

He doesn't want to fight with Caroline, and lets her resume explaining her relationship with Klaus again.

* * *

When she's explained it all, including Elena's approval, she takes the opportunity to take a sip of her drink. She looks a little better after that.

Jeremy's an adult, going to go to college soon. He recognizes Caroline as an adult, and that she probably doesn't like or want the harsh criticism Bonnie wants to give on her budding relationship. He doesn't blame her.

The appetizer arrives quickly and she requests a refill on her drink and thanks their waiter.

Jeremy eats more than he thought he was even capable of, and Caroline decides on what she wants. They order and Caroline carefully takes a piece of their fried appetizer, and then Jeremy asks about his sister and Elijah.

That is a much easier topic, and Caroline talks about them until their food arrives. The food is good and Jeremy can't remember the last time he ate so much. Caroline gets two more refills, and while he knows vampires have a high alcohol tolerance, he's a little worried for her. But he sips his soda and excuses himself. He's going to go use the restroom.

Caroline nods and continues eating.

* * *

He texts Elijah when in the men's room. He asks if he or Klaus could come check on them in thirty minutes or so. He hasn't seen Rebekah lately and thinks Caroline would prefer her boyfriend walking with her rather than Kol or Elijah.

His phone buzzes in his pocket as he washes his hands, he doesn't know how closely Caroline will be paying attention. Elijah tells Jeremy Klaus will be there in the time he wanted. He breathes a sigh of relief and dries his hands, and leaves the bathroom.

He returns, and slides into the booth and Caroline if he wants dessert. She's hungry and she hasn't had blood since the day before. Human food will hold her over for a while and she wants something sweet.

He agrees to that, and they finish their food. Jeremy's a little worried about his stomach, he doesn't usually eat this much food in two days.

Caroline waves it off and tells him he burned the calories, magic had weird side effects anyway. He's just lucky that the only side effect he noticed was being hungry. There are worse side effects, she reminds him. He nods and their waiter clearly their plates and they thank him.

When their waiter returns, he hands Jeremy a refill on his soda and takes the previous glass. He asks if they saved room for dessert, and Caroline nods and orders two different things.

Before Jeremy can open his mouth to protest, she reminds him that she grew up with him. She knows what he will and won't eat. He'll like the dessert, she promises.

She smiles at him and it doesn't look like the usual smile she gives him. He asks about her, how she's doing. Not her relationship with Klaus, Or Elena. He asks about _her._ She takes a sip of her drink before she answers.

Dessert is over with and she's still talking. He listens. Movement by the entrance catches his attention. Klaus. He's never been so thankful to see Klaus before. It's an odd feeling. He doesn't want to deal with it, so he tucks it away and tells himself he'll deal with it later. Caroline isn't her usually perceptive self, so he gives Klaus a signal to wait for a moment.

Caroline finishes with a sigh. She's about to ask him how _he's_ doing, his sister is in a coma after all, but Jeremy gives Klaus a signal to come over so she doesn't get the chance to.

Klaus says hello and asks if he can join them. Jeremy says they were just about to pay their bill and leave. Caroline nods, finishing her drink and the waiter comes over, asking if they're ready for their check.

Caroline nods, and hands the waiter a card Klaus recognizes as one of Rebekah's bank cards. She and Caroline are closer than he had realized.

Jeremy leaves a tip and Klaus guides Caroline out before she can look at the bar again.

They walk at a human pace, slow. Caroline's not drunk, but she's not entirely sober either and she's hurting. She hasn't spent much time thinking about herself lately. Bonnie's rejection and criticism hurt.

Her life is messed up too, and she's trying to take happiness from wherever she can find it. Caroline doesn't understand why Bonnie wants to judge her so harshly when she can smell Jeremy on the witch. But of course, Bonnie considers that to be different or something like that.

Jeremy keeps an eye on Caroline until Klaus tells him he has it. Klaus suggests sleep and thanks Jeremy for getting a hold of him. He's worried about Caroline too.

He doesn't like Klaus and can barely stand him, really. But Caroline cares about him, and it's obvious in the way he's looking at Caroline that he cares about her too. Jeremy cares about Caroline. She deserves happiness, just like anybody else. He wishes that she could have found it in someone else, but if Klaus makes her happy, he won't interrupt it.

* * *

He heads up to his room, checking on Elena on the way. He sees Bonnie where she was a few hours before, and Elena, in the same place she was too. The only thing that's changed is that he sees Elijah sitting on the couch, working on something on the laptop he had seen when he had first entered the room.

"Hello Jeremy." Elijah says to him, looking up from the laptop. So the greeting by names only was something the Original only did with his sister, apparently.

"What are you working on?" He asks, taking a few steps closer.

"I'm uploading a few audio books to this laptop, so Elena can listen to them. She mentioned that she missed books." Elijah explains and Jeremy nods.

"Is Caroline okay?" The Original asks, clicking and typing while looking at him.

"Yeah. Bonnie isn't exactly pro Klaus. I don't blame her, but if Klaus makes Caroline happy, I'm fine with it. Bonnie doesn't feel the same way. Caroline took it a little hard. Thanks for getting Klaus. I thought she'd want to see him the most." Jeremy says and Elijah thanks him for texting him.

Jeremy asks if they could move to an empty room to talk, and Elijah closes the laptop and leads him out of the room. Elena and Bonnie can hear them if Elena wants them to, Jeremy had remembered.

There's an empty study that practically screams Elijah with every inch, Jeremy has no doubt the suited Original decorated this particular space. Jeremy begins to talk and Elijah listens.

* * *

Neither of them know Elena did hear their conversation.

Elena begins to defend Caroline.

* * *

The blonde vampire in question sits next to Klaus on her bed, head on his shoulder as she quietly speaks.

* * *

Ric sleeps, Rebekah and Kol make a bet and the sky outside darkens.


	66. Elijah just needs a nap

He talks and Elijah listens. He doesn't expect his next words, and raises his eyebrows in surprise.

He hadn't expected that level of perception from him, unless it came from Caroline. Jeremy's hesitant approval and acceptance of his feelings for Elena blow him away. He needs a few seconds to think before he can do anything else.

* * *

Elena talks and she tells Bonnie that she wants her to listen. To really, really listen. So despite her best judgement, she quiets, and listens to Elena's voice, in the strange mind palace her friend has created.

* * *

Caroline leans against him, and tells him about the approval promise she and her friends have. She begins to talk, really talk, and it all just starts to come out. She doesn't know when she takes pauses to breathe, or how to stop really, she just knows that when she ends, Klaus has pulled her closer. He hums so quietly that she almost thinks she's just hearing things, until she feels the vibration from his chest.

She doesn't want him to say anything, doesn't need him to say anything. She just needed him to listen and he did a wonderful job at that. Tomorrow, she'll think about everything and face what she doesn't want to face, she'll deal with it all. But for the night, she can close her eyes and lean into Klaus a little more and turn off her brain. It's not forever, but just a little while and that's all she needs really.

* * *

Finally, she's yawning and Elena tells her that she's sending her out. Bonnie can't sleep in her mind. Before she can wonder, Elena tells her that Caroline can't either. It's not good to have another mind steep and mix while sleeping. It's not smart at all.

She leaves out that because Elijah has mental walls that doesn't happen and he can sleep in her mind whenever he wants. It's not relevant and she doesn't want Bonnie to feel more excluded than she already is. She also just doesn't want the witch speculating on her relationship with Elijah more than she already has. Elena doesn't want that, doesn't need that.

The idea of being in a relationship with Elijah just hurts and she doesn't need that pain.

She sends Bonnie out and sleeps. If someone needs her, they can wait. She's exhausted and if it's really important, Elijah will wake her up and tell her. Anyone else can wait until she isn't so damn tired.

* * *

He shakes his head, immediately. He tells the young Gilbert that he isn't in love with Elena, and that they're just friends.

Jeremy Gilbert is quite possibly, one of the only people to ever roll their eyes at an Original and _live._ Elijah decides that when he can get one, he needs a drink.

He sees the human yawn, and suggests he sleep. He hears Bonnie, in Elena's room. Jeremy yawns again, and Elijah opens the door and reminds the Gilbert of how to get back to his room.

Jeremy nods and thanks him, and mumbles something about a goodnight.

* * *

Bonnie is hungry, and Elijah's not surprised. Since he's the only other person up, he offers to take her someplace to eat. He isn't overly fond of her at the moment, but she tells him that before he can defend his brother, Elena already beat him to it. She doesn't want the lecture, she just wants food.

So he keeps his comments to himself, and comes up with a restaurant that's open at almost one o'clock in the morning.

* * *

Bonnie eats, and he's aware that they're both watching each other. She catalogues his actions and words and knows he's doing the same. He wonders if Elena mentioned him at all, to either the witch sitting across from him or her brother; but does not ask. He tucks the thought away and makes polite conversation.

She thanks him as they walk home. Things between them are a little strained, but polite. He makes sure she gets to her room, and checks on Elena before thinking of going to bed himself.

* * *

She's tired, she tells him. It takes effort to even think, she tells him, and he sits next to her and falls asleep a few seconds after she does.


	67. Chapter 67

AN: I like Bonnie, but she is really judgemental sometimes. Also, with the spell I thought it'd be a little more realistic that it wouldn't be perfect. All magic comes with a price, as they say on Once Upon a Time. Caroline focused chap.

* * *

Breakfast is arranged by Caroline, she knows the humans best. Klaus tells her he's off to work on something, and she asks him if he's seen Elijah lately. Klaus suggests Elena's room, or his study. He wishes Caroline luck and she just kisses him on the cheek and tells him to call if he needs anything. He tells her he will. She drinks some blood and focuses on making breakfast.

It's about ten minutes after that when Alaric makes his way downstairs. Caroline hands him a cup of coffee, which he gratefully accepts. They don't talk until he finishes the cup of coffee, and he yawns and asks her for another. She messes with the coffee machine that's too complicated for Alaric's taste, and he gets another cup of energy. Jeremy makes it down twenty minutes later, with messy hair and contagious yawns.

Alaric has managed to eat three muffins and a large scoop of scrambled eggs. Jeremy's eyes widen after he wakes up fully, and considers asking Caroline when the army her breakfast could feed will arrive, but decides against it. Kol comes down after Caroline fixes Jeremy a plate.

She gave him too much food, but he couldn't decide what he wanted. She hands Kol a mug of warm blood and he smiles at her. She heard him making his way downstairs and she knew thought he'd be 's the last down, and Caroline fixes her a cup of coffee and a plate of what she thinks the sleepy Bennett witch would want. She tells them she's going to check on Elijah.

She calls him, unsure if he'll answer or not. The ringing comes from Elena's room. Of course.

Elijah is in Elena's head. She tells them that Elijah should probably leave Elena's mind. She waits for a few minutes and hears Bonnie move downstairs. Nothing. She tells them a few more times, she's pretty sure Alaric and Jeremy would like to talk to her again.

Nothing.

* * *

When everyone's done with breakfast, Caroline checks on Elijah once more. She tells him he should leave Elena's mind. She doesn't know what would happen if she enters Elena's mind while Elijah's in there, so she decides not to.

* * *

She plays tour guide while Kol stays home. Bonnie is still irritated about the Mikaelsons, and the fact that Caroline _and_ Elena somehow managed to fall in love with two of them but stays silent.

New Orleans is beautiful, and Caroline is recognized as someone who associates with the Mikaelsons. It's safe. Jeremy asks about Elena and how she's doing, but Caroline tells him that his sister is occupied.

* * *

She tries to keep them completely occupied with sightseeing, and eventually caves and asks Klaus for another set of places to go. She doesn't know the city as well as she thought she did.

* * *

Ric and Jeremy are occupied in a bookstore for a while, and Bonnie is deep in conversation with a few witches from the Quarter. Caroline keeps an eye on them. There's no time limit for how long they can look around, but Caroline is a little worried about what Bonnie's saying to those witches.

* * *

By the end of the night, she's ordered pizza for dinner, Rebekah is in another city for the rest of the week, and Elijah is still in Elena's head.

Five more days, she thinks before she closes her eyes to sleep.

* * *

Elijah blinks a few times. Elena yawns, curses and apologizes within a minute. She didn't meant to fall asleep, and the spell took a lot out of her. He tells her it took a lot out of Bonnie and Jeremy too. She blinks and he updates her on what he can. She talks, like she needed to. She asks if there's something between Bonnie and Jeremy and he confirms it.

If she was awake, she'd be able to see it too. She admits that after the week is over, she's going to sleep for a day or two. Four people in her head in one day was insanely tiring. He doesn't blame her.

They hear noise, and she hesitantly focuses on it. She almost just wants some space from everyone else, and pretending like the outside world doesn't exist would be useful in helping that. But they focus and they both hear Caroline say that Elijah needed to leave her mind, and that he'd been there for a little over a day. Elijah swears quietly, and she gives him a brief hug before sending him out.

* * *

When Elijah blinks, Caroline tells him it's been a day. She doesn't meant to press, but Elijah tells her anyway. Elena was so tired after he entered her mind that she fell asleep. He didn't wake up until she did.

One person with the spell was the limit for each day. He and Caroline were fine, he explains as he stands up. The spell drained Elena and the person entering her mind.

Caroline nods and Elijah excuses himself.

* * *

Ric moves a chair to sit by Elena, and Bonnie performs the spell again.

It's good to see Ric. It's really nice to see Ric again. She can't keep the tears that come out. They talk for a few hours. She feels better, about everything after that. If nothing else, Ric would keep a good eye on Jeremy. Alaric makes promises he plans to keep and Elena warns that she plans to hold him to them.

* * *

The rest of the week is divided up by who gets to talk to Elena. Caroline is a good tour guide, and she keeps everyone happy and entertained for the most part. She isn't alone in a room with Bonnie until the last day, when they're planning to leave. Elijah has a drink with Klaus in his study on the sixth day. Elijah hasn't been able to talk to Elena in three days, and Klaus is going to miss Caroline. He doesn't say that of course, and Elijah knows his brother well enough to read between the lines. At least Rebekah will be home soon enough, and he'll be able to spend time with Elena. It sounds selfish, but Elena seems to feel the same way, so he doesn't care.

* * *

The night they're leaving, Caroline has everything packed for the week, and is about to close the trunk when familiar arms wrap around her waist. Klaus hold her close, and kisses her. She kisses him back, because they've been talking and she decides she doesn't care.

She really doesn't care, actually, if she has anyone's approval or not. She's an adult, who is making adult decisions. She doesn't care anymore if Bonnie doesn't like who she's dating. She dumped guys for her friend before, and Bonnie had done the same. But they're not in high school anymore, and she really likes Klaus. So if Bonnie is going to stay on her high horse and judge her, it's fine. Because she doesn't care anymore and real friends wouldn't do that.

When they break apart, she tells him that she'll call. He lets go, and everyone else has said their goodbyes. She's not saying goodbye, it's just a week. She'll be back.

* * *

He still pours himself a drink, and as Elijah and Kol walk into the living room, he pours two more.


	68. Progress

It's three songs before anyone actually talks.

"Care." Bonnie says, and Jeremy and Alaric's eyes flicker to the backseat. They're just human. If they fight, neither of them are capable of stopping the girls. Caroline holds her breath, and then Bonnie apologizes.

It's not all perfect, Caroline's still mad, but it's better. She and Bonnie can start from there and she tells the witch so.

It's a lot less tense in the car after that.

* * *

Elena tells him that she'll be sleeping for the next two days, and asks if he could please wake her up when they pass. He should be able to enter her mind and wake her up. Elijah nods and she tells him to have fun in the real world. She's sending him out because she's tired, she reminds him. He tells her he'll see her soon, and she smiles at him and sends him out. He has a life to live, and she needs to catch up on her sleep.

* * *

Rebekah forgets Caroline isn't there until Klaus dryly reminds her that her shopping partner is currently in Mystic Falls.

Things run a little less smoothly without Caroline. Kol frowns the first morning he wakes up and has to actually make breakfast and think in the morning, for the first time in a while. Rebekah shops halfheartedly, and bets with Kol in most of her free time. Elijah doesn't talk about Elena to anyone, but it's odd to see him for almost the entire day. Kol tries to ruffle Elijah's hair again, but Elijah easily sidesteps and avoids it. He even continues reading, which irks Kol a little.

He promises that he will ruffle Elijah's hair someday. His older brother just laughs and Rebekah hides her grin behind a magazine. Klaus looks on with interest, before he resumes sketching something his siblings can't see.

* * *

Two days pass, and Elena helps him with his mind palace. They sort memories, and watch a miniseries Elena instantly loves. Elijah begins to break down the show, and tries to tell her about theories on the show and the symbolism, but Elena tells him she doesn't want to hear that. The series was good, and she didn't want to overanalyze. But he mentions one of the theories he favors, and something flickers in her eyes and she tells him she wants to watch it again.

* * *

They watch it two more times before he's asked to join his siblings for dinner. She returns them to her own mind, then sends him out and asks him to return when he can. He promises that he will.

The rest of the week passes like that, Elena and Elijah never run out of topics to debate or things to think about. Elena doesn't focus on the days and counting them, Elijah notices. She still marks the days off the calendar, however. He does his best to keep her occupied.

* * *

Klaus is much more bearable to be around after Caroline returns, and Rebekah updates her shopping partner on new stores and what they missed. She also adds that she and Caroline have some kind of appointment Klaus doesn't understand, in a few days.

* * *

They fall into a routine, and it's easy. It's good. Months pass.

* * *

Rebekah and Kol venture cautiously into Elena's mind, at different times, and find that they like her. Elijah not only has to worry about when Caroline wants to talk to Elena, but Kol and Rebekah as well. While a little part of him is annoyed that his time with Elena is being cut into, a larger part of him is thrilled that they like Elena.

Klaus doesn't ask or think about entering Elena's mind, he has no desire to do that, and neither does Elena. They have a nice distance between them that they don't mind.

* * *

Caroline keeps Elena updated on the milestones in her relationship with Klaus, and how everyone's doing.

Elena can almost forget that she's stuck in a coma.

Almost.


	69. Drunken Mistakes

AN: The miniseries I had in mind for the previous chapter was Over the Garden Wall, but I try to leave shows mentions open for interpretation. This chapter is partially inspired by the quote: _I've seen you at your worst and I still think you are the best._

* * *

Rebekah was in her mind that morning, and Kol was in an hour after that. They both assured her Elijah would be back from his business trip by the afternoon. Elena accepts it. She wonders if Elijah knows the importance to the day. She double checked her calendar, but Rebekah had confirmed the date. She likes Rebekah and Kol, but they constantly engage her when they visit. She wants Elijah to just let her sit next to him and think and not be lonely. Sometimes just talking makes her feel even lonelier, because she thinks and wants to tell someone about her thoughts. But her visitors leave, eventually. Then she remembers that she's stuck in her own mind and things feel a little worse. She's by herself more often than not, unless Elijah's in New Orleans.

She takes it out on a punching bag until she hears the playlist pause in the real world. She had only been paying attention to the lecture on plants halfheartedly anyway, but Elijah's the only one who pauses it like that. Rebekah and Kol say something before they pause it. Elijah pauses it and then talks.

 _Elijah_ , she thinks and then she hears his voice. He asks her to lower her walls and she does with a wave of her hand. She makes her way downstairs to wait. It was only a week, but she missed him.

When he appears in the darkness, she can't help but move forward to hug him. As his arms wrap around her she can't help the few tears that fall, but she buries her head in his shoulder and hopes he won't notice.

"I know." He says and a few more tears escape. It's been a year. Jeremy and Bonnie are pretending like they aren't a couple, and Caroline is happily with Klaus. Ric is a year older and she's been stuck for a year.

"I feel selfish." The words that have been weighing on her mind for a few days escape, in a murmured confession. She feels weak.

He pulls back, still close, but so they can see each other's faces.

He looks into her guilty, tear filled eyes.

"You are not weak, Elena." He says it with such conviction that she just cries a little harder, because she feels that way no matter what he says. She blinks and a few tears escape.

"I hate this." She whispers and he nods.

"I know."

"I was just thinking today and I started crying because I was hoping Bonnie wouldn't use magic to live longer than a human life. That's selfish and I'm just weak. I don't want to be."

"You're not." He murmurs and she opens her mouth but he continues speaking.

"Anyone could have those thoughts. You're strong. You're so incredibly strong, Elena." He continues, pulling her close again.

She likes physical contact, even if it's not really real.

"I missed you." She sniffles. She's trying to stop crying and she tells herself to get it together.

"I missed you too." He tells her. A few more tears escape. Neither of them know how long they stand there.

When she's done crying, done with being weak, she asks if he wants to watch a movie. That's not his first thought, not the first thing he wants to do, but she's asking. Elena needs it so he'll give it, he knows her voice to hear the slight quiver.

"Of course."

* * *

Caroline crosses her arms.

"You're going to kill him someday." She warns, as she watches Damon and Alaric drink and stand by the stairs to watch her go. At least they're doing that in the Boarding House and not somewhere else, she thinks to herself.

"Loosen up, Barbie. Ric and I are having fun." Damon slurs slightly, and Ric nods his head. Caroline turns and leaves. She has more important things to do.

* * *

She doesn't hear Damon swear, or see Ric tumble down the stairs.

Damon flinches a few seconds later, after he hears the human's neck snap. He searches through his contacts to call Elena. After a few moments he realizes she won't answer, she's being guarded by the Original Assholes. She's in a coma. Right. Damnit. He had almost completely forgotten, just for a few minutes. He calls Jeremy instead.

"He'll be okay, right? He had his ring on?" Jeremy asks, and Bonnie freezes.

Damon shakes his head and then realizes Jeremy can't see it.

"He took it off. Even if he had it on, falling down the stairs doesn't count as a supernatural death Little Gilbert." He says and Jeremy closes his eyes. He's lost his last parental figure. Tears prick in his eyes and he thinks of Elena. She'll be heartbroken. He dials Elijah's number. He doesn't pick up, sometimes he doesn't when Jeremy calls. Jeremy tells him that he needs to tell Elena, in a voicemail.

* * *

Bonnie tells him she'll help him arrange the funeral.


	70. The Decision of a Kinda Forced Hand

She watches a new show Elijah watched while he was away. When they finish the thirteen episodes, she rests her head against his shoulder. They talk, and she's happy. Elijah seems to understand her better than anyone else who has regular access to her head. She asks when Caroline is coming back from Mystic Falls, this time. Elijah tells her it'll be a few days, and she nods. They watch another show, because Elena doesn't have to think if they watch something, she told Elijah in the first month. She wonders how many months she has to go.

* * *

Alaric doesn't look much like a regular corpse. He never had the habit of staying around corpses too long, but Alaric looks almost fine, except for the unnatural angle his neck is at. He takes another drink from his favorite bourbon. Caroline will be coming with her mother in a few minutes, to figure out how they can cover up the death of his best friend.

He stares at Ric too long, much longer than he would if Ric was alive. Then Ric's chest moves and he blinks and sets down the bourbon.

Maybe he had hit his limit.

"Fuck." Ric says and Damon blinks a few more times.

* * *

"Oh my god, Ric's a _vampire_? Damon, he spent part of his life _hunting_ vampires. This is not going to be an easy transition." Caroline hisses.

"Get off your high sober horse Barbie." Damon says and Liz and her daughter roll their eyes at the same time.

"I haven't decided if I want to transition or not." Ric offers from the floor. He hadn't wanted to move, and Damon had thoughtfully left a glass of bourbon to drink from.

"You have less than a day to make a decision." Damon reminds him before he resumes drinking from his bottle of bourbon.

"I know that." His friend tells him.

"Come on Ric, I need to show Jeremy that you're not dead because he's kinda freaking out right now."

Ric groans. His hand feels a little forced.

* * *

"I can teach you. If you decide to transition, you can come with me to New Orleans for a little while and it'll all be okay." Caroline says, looking at him from the passenger seat.

"And I bet Bonnie could make you a daylight ring. If she won't, I can get one for you." She adds, and Alaric swears. Liz isn't quite sure what to make of the man in her backseat.

* * *

Elena bites her lip and then the tears spill out. Ric's dead. Really dead. He wasn't wearing his ring this time, they hear Rebekah say. Elijah holds her while she cries and she feels even worse because that seems to be what they've been doing most lately.

She just wants to be happy.

That won't happen for a long time.

They hear Rebekah call Caroline for more details, and then they hear her confusion.

"Wait so he's not dead? He's going to transition?" Rebekah says, and Elena takes a little breath, and then they hear Rebekah sigh in relief.

"You'll take him here to teach him? That's a wise move. Caroline, I'm talking like this because I'm in front of Elena and Elijah. I'm sure they're listening in. Elena, Liz says hi and everyone wants me to remind you that you love them although you already know." They hear the Original say, and then they wait a few more minutes, but she can't hear Rebekah anymore.

"Oh thank god." She whispers into Elijah's shoulder.

She won't lose Ric after all. One less thing to worry about, from her too long list.

She has a few happy tears and Elijah offers her a hopeful smile. She does wonder why Damon's blood was in Alaric's system, but she'll ask about that now, she's too relieved to care.

She's not the only one.


	71. Chapter 71

AN: I have been asked if this is Dalaric, read it however you want.

* * *

When she has the chance to get him alone, she demands answers.

"Why the hell was your blood in Ric's system?" Damon rolls his eyes.

"We were drunk and Ric messed up his foot. Blood is free. The hospital is not." He says, and he can feel himself sobering up. He takes another drink. Much better.

"It's obvious you were drunk, Damon. I'm surprised he didn't die of alcohol poisoning!" She's quiet to keep her voice down, but she is pissed. All she wanted was a quiet week home with her mom. Instead she has to deal with a baby vampire. Part of her thinks that if Elena was awake, this would be hers to deal with and she could ignore it. But Elena isn't awake, and it's unfair to think that. She sighs.

"I'd say I need a drink, but drinking is what started this mess." She groans, running a hand through her hair. Damon offers his bottle and she makes a noise of disgust.

"I'm going to go get Alaric." She tells him and he sighs.

"Have it your way Blondie." He mutters.

* * *

Alaric has a bag packed when she reaches his apartment.

"Are we leaving for New Orleans?" He asks. Caroline pauses.

"I'm sorry."

"For what?" His forehead crinkles.

"That you're a vampire. I know this probably isn't what you wanted." She begins and pauses. She takes a deep breath.

"I don't know anyone who turned purely because they wanted to. You might not want this or like this right now, but I swear it gets better." She's not lying, and she wants him to be even just a little bit more okay about this.

"Did you say goodbye to your mom?" He asks, instead of saying anything somewhat close to her expectations.

"Yeah. I did." She says.

"Then let's go." He says. She opens the door, he picks up his bag and follows her out.

She has to be careful as she drives. It's dark out, but they won't be able to make the trip in one day. Bonnie wouldn't make Alaric a ring, despite Jeremy's protests.

* * *

They have to stop before dawn, and Caroline hurries them both into a nearly vacant motel. Alaric should not be hungry, at least not for a while.

She gets a room with two beds, if Alaric was human she would trust him with his own room. But he isn't human anymore, so she doesn't. She calls Klaus while Alaric sleeps.

She'll be back in a day. She has to call a few more people, Rebekah, Bonnie, Jeremy and her mom.

She tells them all slightly different things, but she tells Rebekah more than anyone.

Caroline doesn't want to worry Jeremy or her mom or prove Bonnie right.

* * *

Klaus promises chocolate when she returns. That makes things just a little bit better.


	72. Look a Christmas chapter

He can see how Elena adjusted to life as a vampire. He feels guilty for judging her and all of the other vampires in his life. He's sparring with Rebekah to get a grasp on his new strength.

He had protested at first, when she had told him to hit as hard as he could. He didn't want to hurt her. She had laughed, and told him she was centuries old. He couldn't do that much damage.

* * *

She's practically bouncing with excitement for a new fighting opponent. Kol almost always gets the advantage by pulling her hair until she can get him off her.

Elijah never completely spars, he's partially with Elena or in his thoughts. Elijah's too restrained to fight with her like she wants. Klaus is too busy with Caroline anymore, he used to be fun to fight. Finn wouldn't be up for it.

* * *

Sparring is different as a vampire, he hits the wall instead of Rebekah a few times. How she knows of a little abandoned building not too far away from where they live, he doesn't know. He can feel his ribs healing as he leans against the dusty brick. He aims for Rebekah's cheek and she avoids it easily.

Eat, sleep, repeat. Each of the Mikaelsons offer him something different. Elijah teaches restraint, Klaus teaches speed and Rebekah and Kol teach him how to deal with strength and they all deal with hunger.

Caroline teaches him how to hold on to humanity, although he sees that occasionally in the Mikaelsons. He doesn't know them well enough to find it as easily as Caroline, but he's working his ass off on other things.

While they all vary on techniques and methods, they all agree he can't visit Elena until he gets his emotions under control, and that Damon shouldn't visit until then either.

A day bleeds into a week into a few months. Alaric returns to Mystic falls for a while.

* * *

"Elijah. It's Christmas. You should be with your family."

"You're alone. They are not." He says simply.

"They need you." She says. She doesn't want the Mikaelsons to think she stole Elijah from them. Really, that's not what she wants, but it's how she thinks they feel.

 _You do too_ , he wants to say. The words stay in his throat.

"I'll be back later, after Caroline has deemed the festivities of the day to be over, if that is alright." He decides. She gives him a sad smile and nods. She tried to make it happy. Elijah leaves and she is alone. Jeremy and Bonnie are still pretending like whatever they're doing isn't happening, although it is.

Elena wonders if it's snowing somewhere. She just feels cold. She closes her eyes and dreams.


	73. So sorry about the angst

He does come back, and he hugs her before she can do anything else. She's guessing Caroline gave him what she got him for Christmas.

"I am sorry I can't give you something as wonderful as you gave me." He says and she shakes her head.

"You do. You keep me up to date. I don't know what I'd do without you." She admits into his shoulder. It's too close to what she almost wants to say, but she can't hurt him. She can't risk hurting him or scaring him into never returning.

* * *

They watch Christmas movies in his mind, and Elena lets her mind go blank as they do. It's a little better, then. He shows her what Caroline planned, as he experienced it. There's a twinge of sadness in the memory that she can feel, and she _knows_ it's not hers. Then she sees Elijah look towards her room. Oh.

She wants to apologize, but Elijah wouldn't accept an apology anyway. She thanks him for the memory, for the chance to do that. He thanks her, for her thoughtful gift. He has one that he'll give her next year, he decides. The gift will need a little work, but he'll do it. Elena's worth it. She sends him out so she can sleep for a few days.

* * *

Weeks pass, and the Mikaelsons keep her company and Elena feels like a burden still, despite their best efforts. She misses everything. She misses real sensation. They're all living their lives and she isn't. She loves Elijah but she can't say the words. She tries once, and he looks at her with unreadable eyes as the words lodge themselves in her throat. She almost chokes. She coughs and tells him about something else.

* * *

Caroline visits Mystic Falls, and dates Klaus. She tells him that she loves him, and all of the other Mikaelsons leave the house for a few days, and take Elena with them.

Rebekah has never been so thankful for Elijah's odd real estate habit. Rebekah contacts Elena's nurse and tells her about the change in location, with a genuine apology and money to make up for it. Things are almost normal, despite their change of location. Elijah runs what Klaus is in charge of until his brother is ready to be in charge again.

* * *

Caroline and Klaus call eventually, with partially insincere apologies. Rebekah's fairly sure Klaus and Caroline didn't care about kicking the rest of them out of the house, but Klaus attempts to deny it. Rebekah takes the phone from Elijah and tells Klaus to put a shirt on, and that they'd be there in an hour.

She knows her siblings well. Klaus is probably shirtless and Caroline is probably in a similar state of undress. None of them want to see that when they get home.

* * *

Elena gets a kick out of it, Elijah, Rebekah and Kol tell her about it from a similar view.

Caroline tells it in a different light, and then she clears her throat because she doesn't want to hear about what Klaus Mikaelson looks like shirtless or any of the other details she knows Caroline is planning to tell her. It takes a few moments for Caroline to get the hint. She drops the subject, but Elena would have known, even if the other Mikaelsons hadn't told her. Caroline doesn't look as tense anymore.

They talk about other things and then Caroline yawns and Elena sends her away.

* * *

There are weeks that pass where she just sleeps and everyone in the real world pretends like they're fine until they talk about it together, usually after a drink or two. They don't like days without Elena, and Elena doesn't like days without them but it all comes down to selfishness.

She's too selfish and they need to live their lives. Sleeping for so long is a double edged sword, it makes the time pass more quickly, but she misses out when she does it. She also is up for a long time after that. Elena tries to find a good balance for it.

* * *

Elijah does his best to stay impartial, and tells her the news as time goes on that Alaric is teaching at a small university for a the time being.

Damon and Stefan have moved out of Mystic Falls, Damon visits Alaric regularly, and Stefan is in France.

Caroline's mother is still doing well, and there isn't that much to report from Mystic Falls since everyone moved away.

He tells her about Matt, who got a full ride scholarship to one of the best football colleges in the nation and he might become a professional football player. Elijah watched one of the games he played in, and he was fairly good, for a human.

The Original keeps people watching over him, Matt Donovan should be protected if possible. Elena wants him to have a normal life, and so does the human. Matt almost died for her, he went through hell and back in his life before college. He deserves that. He deserves good things.

Elijah had talked to him, and Matt had told him that he meant no offense, but the supernatural chapter of his life ended when he left Mystic Falls, and he didn't want that in his life. Elijah told him he respected that. What he doesn't tell Elena is that he told Matt of her condition. The human froze at the mention of his first love, and told Elijah to call as soon as she woke up. If he's still alive, he'll see Elena and go to Bonnie's funeral. Elijah wishes him the best in his life and career and Matt nods and tells him to take care. He tells Elena of that.

As tears prick in Elena's eyes, he wonders if she still wants that, how badly she wanted that. He almost wants a human life sometimes too, but he doesn't want to hurt her. She doesn't say anything, just shakes her head and asks him to keep talking. So he does. He talks until neither of them can talk anymore.

* * *

A few more years pass, and Caroline tells Elena that Bonnie told Jeremy she didn't want to see him again. He didn't understand at first, until the words hit. Bonnie had been crying and Jeremy had moved to comfort her before the witch spoke again.

She told him that every time she saw him, she was reminded of her failures. She was reminded that Elena is in a coma and it's because of her. They're all suffering because of her, Jeremy especially. Her mascara ran as she told Jeremy that she loved him. She did, she loved Jeremy with almost all her heart, but she couldn't keep pretending and couldn't keep lying to herself. She could never really love him completely. There was something in her that wouldn't let her fall all the way. Jeremy had nodded and kept the box in his pocket there. She had always told him they were only temporary. He wishes that he had listened.

They were spare moments and in betweens, take out on her couch. They were not talking and action, and not really a real relationship at all, but it still hurts like the loss of a real relationship. Jeremy feels like he's bleeding as he drives to New Orleans.

* * *

Elena comforts him as best as she can, but it hurts her too. Another double edged sword. When Jeremy leaves, he reminds her that he's not going to say goodbye, because it's not a goodbye. He'll see her again. She hugs him with tears in her eyes. Then she sends him away. Caroline pays the witch who had agreed to not to speak of this, and sees Jeremy out.

* * *

Caroline and Rebekah befriend a witch named Freya, a few days after that. Freya likes the same things they do. They begin to hang out more and more often, much to the worry of Elijah and Klaus. There are a few times people ask if the three blondes are all related, and they laugh it off.

* * *

Elena only hears from Kol and Elijah for a few weeks, because Caroline and Rebekah move out for a while. Freya doesn't know the truth, doesn't know her new friends are hiding a large secret quite yet and cannot be exposed to Elena. Then things get complicated for a few weeks.

Freya claims to be a Mikaelson one day, and it throws them all.

* * *

Finn and Sage even come back to New Orleans at this claim, and Caroline moves Elena for a while, an apartment across town. Freya doesn't know Elena even exists. Elijah misses her, but the issue of Freya is a little more pressing so he deal with that.

Klaus is tired of the drama Freya brings, he came to New Orleans to run a kingdom not to meet imposters, but a blood test and details only a Mikaelson would know prove that she is part of the family. Klaus is more agreeable when Caroline can come back and Elijah's a little less tense when he switches places with her. She gets to deal with Klaus and he keeps Elena safe for a while.

* * *

Finn and Sage leave after a few days with a promise to return. Freya talks to Finn before they leave, he's the only one who really remembered her before she was taken away from them.

Freya says that she was stuck in a coma for a few centuries, the reason why she's a witch who looks a few years older than Caroline. Their Aunt Dahlia froze her to taunt Esther. The sisters had made a deal, Freya reveals. Dahlia took her first born in exhange for Esther to have children, Caroline privately thinks that it sounds like a fairytale but keeps that thought to herself. They're all quietly glad that Freya kept her claim to herself.

She has a right to know what's going on, and to catch up on the family drama. They all update her in their own ways, leaving things out or adding too much.

* * *

Elijah has to explain his history with Elena and their siblings add details when they want to. They only move Elena back when the Originals deem it safe. Elijah still doesn't quite trust Freya yet.

She's watched for a few days after all of that, and when Elijah finds her wandering into Elena's room, he gives her a warning. If she says even one thing wrong, if she hurts Elena in any way, retribution will be painful.

Freya just gives him a knowing look with those pale eyes of hers. Rebekah texts Elijah to let him know that she'll keep an eye on Freya while he's with Elena. He thanks her, in his reply. They don't know what all Freya can do, and they don't want to risk being overheard.

Kol thinks it's probable proof that Freya's one of them. They all hide things from each other and lie at some point, it's how their family works.

Rebekah is miffed the first time she sees Kol make a bet with Freya. They all walk on eggshells for a while, but they all breathe just a little bit easier when Elena likes her too.

Things work a little more smoothly after that.

Life goes on.


	74. Year

Elena doesn't feel guilty. Not really. She and Elijah have been allies for longer than they've known Freya. She tells Elijah everything his older sister says for a few months.

* * *

Freya is a gifted witch, and they eventually trust her. Whenever Jeremy visits, she performs the spell Bonnie found.

Sometimes Finn and Sage return and she spends time with Finn especially.

* * *

Elijah finds new things to entertain her with, different shows, theories, books.

Elena has weeks where she just sleeps and Caroline takes Elijah out for cupcakes.

When it's Elena's birthday, Caroline cries, and thinks she sees something change in Elena's appearance but shakes it off. Elena cries a little too, she wonders how many birthdays she'll have stuck in her own head. She misses everything. She misses alarm clocks and shopping. she misses candles and perfume. Anything and everything. She even misses birthday candles, as stupid as she knows that sounds, she tells Elijah.

* * *

Time moves on and it's Christmas before she knows it. It's not snowing in New Orleans, but Elijah tells her he has something to show her in his mind.

A few things, he'll correct himself later.

Snow. It's the best Christmas gift ever, and she makes a snow fort, has a snowball war with Elijah. She feels the sensation of being cold for the first time in a long time. She makes snow angels as Elijah watches, until she convinces him, with some effort, to join her. He gets a snowball in his face after she tells him he has the hang of it.

There's another battle in their snowball war, and when Elena admits defeat, they move on to making snowpeople. Elena makes a snow mermaid and a few other people. Elijah gives one of his carefully perfected snowmen his tie, and Elena gives the one next to it plastic fangs. He laughs. Then there's a memory of warmth, hot chocolate by a fire and she can almost forget.

"Thank you for the Christmas presents." She tells him before moving to give him a hug. He wraps his arms around her, and he tells her that the memories weren't her present. She pulls back and asks what her gift is. He tells her to close her eyes. So she does.

"The twenty four ice cream place?" She asks. It's almost exactly how she remembers it.

"I bought it for you. It'll be there when you wake up." He tells her and tears burn in her eyes as she hugs him.

They don't move for a long time.


	75. Will Be Updated Again on Monday

AN: I'm not too evil, this will be updated again on Monday!

* * *

Life goes on, and it passes like a routine. Rebekah dates but never settles on someone to go steady with, Klaus and Caroline act like an old married couple and they all do what's necessary. Alaric fakes a tragic death and then teaches at vampire focused universities. Caroline's mother dates and Caroline still visits at least every three weeks.

Freya creates a spell to make humans think vampires age. The rest of her family won't stick out quite so badly. Klaus tells her it's not time yet. Rebekah and Kol win back what they lost and bet on other things. Elijah visits Elena and it's not until Elena's next birthday that Caroline bursts into tears and breaks Elijah's heart with a single sentence.

"Oh my god, Elijah, she's aging." Elena knows that she's a vampire, but she feels too old to look like a teenager anymore. Mentally, she's in her twenties and things are hard.

* * *

Days turn into weeks turn into months turn into a year that melts into two years then three years and a decade sneaks up on them.

Then another. Things don't change very much, Elijah keeps the ice cream shop alive, and Bonnie calls for the first time in years. It's for Elena. She apologizes. She apologizes that they got into this mess and that she broke Jeremy's heart, but she's going to live with a coven that doesn't like vampires. She won't visit very much.

Caroline just holds her as Elena doesn't move, and then listens to it with Elena in her head. Things will get better, she tells Elena.

It's hard to inspire hope when you don't have any and when worry bubbles in your stomach like violent soda. But Caroline tries to be hopeful anyway.

* * *

Matt gets married to a nice girl who loves him, a human girl with bright eyes who wants children and knows absolutely nothing about the supernatural. She doesn't know that the flowers he grows with her favorite flowers keep away vampires and werewolves, doesn't know he adds little dried flakes of it to her coffee in the morning. She just knows that he's all she wants and needs and they love each other more than anything.

Caroline visits when his wife is out of the house or out of town, and is careful to avoid the media. She's already famous in a different setting.

Bonnie visits him too and so does Jeremy. He's sad that they didn't work out but he lives his life. He retires from football after four years of playing professionally. He's known for not spending his money, unlike so many others. He came from a humble background, and he's always tried to keep that, is all he says in explanation to the press.

Jeremy is a comic book artist in Texas, not for any other reason than it's not too far away from Elena. He draws and draws and draws and sketches until he can't think. Freya offers to stop his aging until Elena wakes up. He tells her he'll think about it.

* * *

Two decades pass. Elijah's never suppressed saying the words I love you for so long before. He knows logically that it's barely anything from his lifetime, but he can't remember the last time a decade every felt so long. There's a year where Elena sleeps, and whoever wants in her head experiences her dreams with her while they talk, and then one year where she tries to stay awake the entire time.

* * *

Bonnie almost has children and then doesn't. She decides someone else can carry on the Bennett line. She's over it.

Another decade passes through Elena's fingers like sand and she wonders if she's numb from everything. She's beginning to have laughter lines, like that Bastille song in the playlist Elijah made.

* * *

Then one day Caroline comes to her head and cries for an entire day and Elena's mind palace floods a few inches.

Liz Forbes is dead from a heart attack at the age of seventy four. Caroline kisses Elena's forehead and tells her that she'll leave a space for her, but she has to go plan a funeral and Elena can't come. Klaus does, and Elijah and Kol run things that Klaus is usually in control of. Freya calms the witches who think it's a bad sign, Klaus has rarely left the city in decades. Rebekah calms the hybrids and vampires who think it's a bad omen. It's not. Death is a natural part of life.

* * *

He finds her far away from her mind palace, almost blending in with the darkness. She has a bottle of some kind of alcohol, there's no label on it.

"I wish this worked here." She says. He asks her to let him take her to his mind palace. He has plenty of memories of being drunk from his first few centuries.

* * *

They're in a pub that doesn't exist anymore while the music she listens to for mourning plays and she cries and does shots and drinks a few bottles. The feelings aren't really real, but she stays in Elijah's mind for a week and he has to leave because he's needed in the real world and then the feeling of sobriety returns.

Caroline shows her the funeral and they mourn together. Elijah pours everyone in the house a drink.

* * *

Four decades and a year, Elena counts as Elijah spends January first with her. Then another year and something shifts. Caroline is the first to get the news out of them, she got it from Matt. Freya and Rebekah can't tell if she's crying because she's happy or if she's sad but it's both. Bonnie is dying, an incurable disease she can barely pronounce. She has a handful of months left. Elijah should not feel hope spark in his chest, should not have run to Elena's room the way he did.

He knows this, but he knows Caroline understands. They all do.


	76. super sorry about the angst

AN: Lyric for this chapter: "I'm so much older than I can take."

* * *

Elena is so sick of crying. She sends Elijah away because her reaction will hurt both of them and she can't take that. She can hurt herself, but she can't hurt him.

* * *

Caroline finds her with her eyes closed, a happy song playing. The entire mind palace is shaking with the noise.

"What are you doing?" Caroline asks. It isn't celebrating, there are too many glass bottles on the floor for that.

"I'm in denial. I need to have that for a day, okay? Our best friend is dying and I shouldn't feel happy at all. Caroline, I felt happy at the news. I'm a monster." Elena says and Caroline asks if she's going to get up from the floor. Elena shakes her head. Caroline moves a few of the bottles and Elena asks what she's doing.

"I'm not leaving you." Caroline says simply, and they stay on the floor for a while. Bonnie isn't their best friend, too much time has passed for Elena's words to be true, but they're both starting to mourn the missed opportunities and chances. Elena wonders if that's all there is to being a vampire, other than the blood.

* * *

Caroline leaves when she needs to eat, Elena's sure she doesn't want to be stuck in the bed next to her, an IV in her arm too.

Elena closes her eyes.

* * *

Elijah forgets that he doesn't need to breathe when he finds the house flooded and shaking with the beat of the song she's playing.

"Elena." He says.

"I'll deal with everything tomorrow. Please just give me today." She asks. He nods, and decides he'll show her next day.

Caroline just tugs him off the bed and they walk out of the house and to get cupcakes.

* * *

They're all asleep, and Elena's close to it too when she walks into a flooded mind palace.

"I need to show you something." Freya says and tells her that midnight passed, so she did get the day to spend in denial.

"Where are we going?" Elena asks, soaking wet. The house stills as the music pauses.

"A memory of mine." Freya says and takes Elena's hand. She waits for the sensation to stop and Elena frowns when her eyes open.

"This is where we are physically." She says and Freya nods.

She follows the witch to a familiar looking room, and she looks at everything but the person on the bed.

"Elena. Look at yourself." Freya commands and her head turns.

"That's me?" She asks. She looks dead and young at the same time.

"It is."Freya confirms and she holds Elena for a moment as her hair shrinks in length. The wrinkles disappear. They return to Elena's mind palace, although the blonde doubts Elena notices.

* * *

"Elijah! Elijah wake up!" She says, giving him a short push.

"What is it?" He asks, with a sleep rough voice. He's out of bed before she can answer, and listens. It's not an attack against their family, everyone is sleeping peacefully. Freya pauses for a moment before she answers.

"It's Elena." He's gone before she can finish saying the name.

* * *

He finds her in a closet, curled up in the dark. No possibility of a reflective surface here.

"I feel so much older than I look." She confesses as he moves to sit next to her.

"I know." He says simply. It's part of being a vampire but she hasn't had the ability to look at herself and know that her body wouldn't change, she wouldn't age like any other vampire would.

"I feel horrible for feeling excited." She whispers and he just pulls her closer in the cramped space.

"You can't help it." He murmurs.

"I wish I could." She admits and he nods.

* * *

They talk, about Caroline and Bonnie, things they knows and then the unknown and it feels like a few hours.

"Freya tricked me." He says and she nods.

"She tricked me too. She knew I needed to do this and she knew you'd come running." There's no accusation there, no expectation or weight to the words.

"Indeed." He says.

"Are you still planning to show me the world when I get out of here?" She asks after the comfortable silence has gone too long for the question that's been on her mind for a while.

"Of course." He says and they start planning. She feels like a bird in a cage, with the most morbid timer counting down her freedom. Or maybe Elijah's like the lawyer who works on getting her out of prison. He does wear the suits after all. In another life, she could see him with a briefcase fighting with words and the law.

Only Elijah could have found her, she thinks. The door she created for this room looked fake, she thought she'd have hours before anyone came looking or found her. But he just knew, like he always did. It took under a minute.

* * *

He gets up and takes her hand and opens the door. The light is blinding and she closes her eyes for a moment and then she looks at him.

"You're in your pajamas." She says and he looks down and lets out a laugh.

"It was urgent after all." He says and she asks him to dream with her, to keep them light until he's needed in the real world. He rarely can find it in himself to deny her anything after all, and he nods to that. Of course he will.

Things aren't okay, not really, but they're better.


	77. 1 more chapter till change begins

Two week pass. Caroline takes Elijah out for cupcakes, and Freya requests peanut butter chocolate instead of the vanilla with sprinkles she had last time. Caroline tells her she'll remember because she's not sure Elijah is actually focusing on very much.

* * *

They talk, and she speaks honestly about Bonnie's condition. Bonnie was writing her will according to Matt when she found out. Caroline is supposed to work with the coven Bonnie's with to plan her funeral. Elijah remarks that will be difficult and Caroline nods. She plans to take Freya with her to plan it when she gets the call, and he can understand her reasoning. His siblings don't have the best track record with witches. Since Freya's a witch, they might be more inclined to work with Caroline.

She tells him that she'll make sure Jeremy and Matt come to the funeral. As she orders, she tells him that she knows Elena will want him there, and they'll get invited no matter what. She doesn't care what she might have to do for that. He thanks her, with a heavy heart and hands full with a box of cupcakes.

* * *

When they return, she remembers to leave the one she picked out for Elena's nurse where she'd look.

Klaus pulls her close when she enters his bedroom, and she tells him what's going to happen when Bonnie's dead.

* * *

Elena asks, and he genuinely has to take a moment to think about it.

"I don't think I've had ice cream since we got coffee and ice cream the night before this began." he says and she tells him that he'll have to add it to their to do list for when she gets out. She hates herself for being hopeful but freedom is so close she can almost touch it. He tells her that he will, and he updates her on the world, and they watch a movie he thought she'd like. He should probably leave her mind, but she asks him to show her New Orleans, because she knows it's changed and she doesn't want to be completely shocked when she sees it again once she wakes up.

They spend a few hours walking through a city she's never truly done anything in. The world is huge and she can't wait to explore it someday.


	78. House of Memories

AN: Get ready for the angst. The song for this chapter is House of Memories by Panic! At The Disco. I know I'm horrible but this will be updated again Monday.

* * *

Caroline gets the call and takes Freya with her. She stops by Elena and Elijah who's in her head at the moment.

"I got the call from the coven. I'm taking Freya with me. It's not time yet, but we're close. I'm calling Jeremy and Alaric to come here." Caroline tells them and repeats it a few times.

* * *

"Jeremy's going to see us as similar ages to what he should be physically. I'll never get wrinkly with white hair. You never will either. How did you deal with it?" Elena says and Elijah answers.

She knows what Caroline leaving means, Elijah told her. Jeremy's aging is tied to her coma. He hasn't aged too much, and she can't imagine a world without Jeremy. Elijah knows that too, and she'll have to figure that out as well. They've never talked about it, but she's never been apart for Jeremy for very long.

Elijah's lucky in a horrible way, his parents turned almost all of his siblings into vampires. He's never really had to come to terms with living without them, except Henrik. He doesn't speak about Henrik very much, and she respects that. Despite their friendship, there are topics he doesn't touch, and although she thinks they have similar feelings, she's never bothered him like Caroline would about his romantic life. According to Caroline, Elijah's been single for a long time, even before she fell into her coma.

There's a quiet that settles over them after they talk for a few hours, and she asks if she can fill it. It's a song he added to her playlist, he recognizes. It's a few decades old and it's upbeat with melancholy vocals and an easy rhythm. The song grows louder until she's deemed it fills the silence, and she thinks, but doesn't ask Elijah to leave. She likes him being there and while she likes being alone, she doesn't like being lonely. She can feel the beat with every part of her, and she knows Elijah can too. If he asks her to turn it down, she will, but when she opens her eyes to look at him, his are closed. He looks peaceful, and happy. That might be wishful thinking or projecting her feelings on him though, so she moves her head back to the position it was in before and closes her eyes too. The song repeats over and over, but it's a good song and she likes not thinking. It's really nice. Not thinking and having Elijah next to her is even better.

He leaves with a promised return, and she smiles at him and he has hope tugging at his lips. Then he's gone and she plays a different song, slow and mellow with electronic notes. She gets a little happier when she realizes that once she wakes up, she'll never be this lonely again. Even if she never talks to anyone while she's out walking around, there will be other people. Strangers. The thought of them is almost thrilling and amazing.

* * *

Klaus joins the betting game with Kol, Rebekah and Freya. Rebekah and Kol are blank slates, having won back what they owed each other, Rebekah has a necklace and earrings of Freya's and Kol wants a certain bottle of vintage whiskey his older brother has. Klaus grins and tells Kol that the bet is on. Rebekah misses her older sister.

They stopped letting Elijah play their betting game when he basically owned everything but them, he played with the numbers to figure out the best bets, and when to stay away.

Once they're done for the day, the Rebekah and his two betting younger brothers invite him to poker. He can't always be in Elena's head, they need space and his siblings need him.

The song Elena played so loudly he could _feel_ it instead of his heartbeat is on loop in his head as he moves his cards and keeps his face composed. He wins the first round with ease. They play for six more rounds and when Kol suggests board games, Klaus says they can play anything but monopoly.

* * *

He spends the night in Elena's head. He leaves for a few hours the next day, the same time Rebekah leaves to go shopping. Kol tells Elijah he wants time with Elena, and almost succeeds in messing up Elijah's hair, but he nods and sidesteps Kol. Kol curses as he walks to Elena's room and swears he will get him.

* * *

He's talking to her the next morning, and she's playing music quietly when her brow furrows and feels an unfamiliar presence in her mind. She tries to hold onto him but he feels himself get shoved out, and he knows it wasn't Elena's doing. When he listens to hear who's home, he knows it's not anyone nearby. With that knowledge, he tries to return to her mind as quickly as possible. She could be in danger. He says her name and tells her to keep her walls down, and when he manages to reach her mind, the walls are up. There's a note in handwriting he doesn't recognize, that Elena is fine. He doesn't believe that but he can't take her walls down, only she can. With the knowledge that more than one person in her head could prove dangerous, he carefully withdraws and waits.

* * *

"Bonnie?" Elena asks, the person in front of her looks so unrecognizable. It has to be Bonnie, she thinks, and the woman waves her hand. It's what Bonnie looked like before they messed with that vengeful witch.

Elena's eyes flood with tears and her friend murmurs that she almost forgot Elena wouldn't recognize her. She apologizes, for everything she can think of. She wanted to grow old and do all of those things they thought they'd do when they were younger, with Elena next to her. That had changed when Elena had turned into a vampire, but Bonnie had foolishly thought maybe they could do that anyway. Elena starts speaking and Bonnie gently cuts her off. They don't have much time. Elena cries that they never had much time. Bonnie tells her that she's using the last of her energy, the last of her magic. She doesn't want to live a few more weeks just to be hooked up to machines for survival and do so knowing she's preventing Elena from living while she lives a life that's not worth living at all.

Elena's crying and her mind palace starts flooding. Bonnie gives her a sage smile and shows her memories, memories she regrets not sharing with Elena, the times she wished she had Elena and Caroline next to her to experience life with her. She was fairly happy, Bonnie says as she hugs Elena for the last time. She wishes her the best, and she tells Elena that one of her only regrets was not being with Jeremy. But she broke it off how she did because she couldn't stand it, and in a perfect world, this never would have happened and she'd be asking Elena to look after her children and whoever else she's leaving behind. But she's not, and she regrets that, but she tells Elena as her eyes fill up with tears, that it's her time to live. Elena opens her mouth to protest and then Bonnie walks out of her mind palace, and she chases after her.

Her mind palace seems so far away, the light is barely visible, and then Bonnie is gone and the darkness swallows her whole.


	79. Not Okay

He knows looking for a physical sign is ridiculous, but he gives it another minute before he attempts to enter her head. He thinks of the song that Elena loved so loudly that it filled her mind palace, and he thinks he sees her arm twitch.

Her eyes fly open and she tries to move into a sitting position, but she forgets about the IV.

"Ow." She says with a rough voice he can barely recognize, and he gingerly removes the IV and tells her he'll be right back with blood and water. She nods, and he gets out of the chair near her bed and is back when she blinks. Elena tries to not look at her bleeding arm, and she has to remember that she needs to drink blood, that the dry rough part of her throat isn't going to be sated by water.

She gulps it down and she can feel her arm healing, and washes the blood down with water. He opens his mouth as she looks around the room and then she remembers.

"That wasn't a dream, was it?" She asks and he shakes his head. Her entire body seems to droop, and she starts crying. He wraps his arms around her, and she tells him she saw Bonnie, what her friend had said, and what she had done. Elijah holds her for a few minutes and she tells him she wants to take a shower, and scoots off the bed and almost falls as she tries to stand. He catches her, and helps her stand up. Her legs take a moment to get used to the real world and she asks him if the bathroom is where it was when he showed her the latest update of the house. He nods and she tells him it's been decades since she went through any kind of beauty routine and she needs to do something familiar before she can think about anything else. The hot water feels like lava against her almost stiff muscles.

* * *

He retreats downstairs to alert his siblings, and they give him smiles he doesn't understand completely, but he's focused on listening to make sure Elena's okay that he doesn't notice until he feels something touching his head.

"I did it!" Kol shouts victoriously, and Elijah has his arm around Kol's neck messing up his hair a second after that.

"It only took you four decades give or take." Klaus notes and Rebekah tells Kol and Elijah that they look ridiculous. Klaus's phone rings and Elena asks Elijah a question because she knows he'll hear it as he's fixing his hair.

He tells her that they'll be going to Bonnie's funeral once Jeremy arrives and they both hear Caroline on the phone with Klaus, she wants him to come with Elijah and the Gilberts. She thought she could handle it, she had decades to get used to the idea that Bonnie would be dead one day, but she's not okay and she needs him. She also adds that Alaric is just going to go straight to where she is rather than detouring in New Orleans.

He continues speaking to Elena, and Rebekah says that she's going to get some clothes for Elena, because she's fairly sure she doesn't know what's fashionable nowadays and it's only because they're friends. Elena lets out a choked laugh and Elijah sends his sister a dirty look and she rolls her eyes.

* * *

It is bizarre to see Elena not in her room, she's actually walking around and eating.

"I missed food so much." She says between bites. She missed everything really, but food's something the Originals have in their house. They all hear the car in their driveway and Elena moves to see who it is. She knows, she knows it's Jeremy and his door is barely closed before he's engulfed in a hug and familiar perfume hits his nose.

"Elena?" He asks although he knows, and wraps his arms around his sister. She cries, and her fragile human brother is the strong one in the hug.

"Thank you." He mouths, to the Originals watching, but especially to Elijah. They nod, different expressions on their faces.

Rebekah hands her a packed bag, and she notices three suitcases. Elijah says he'll drive, and Klaus calls the passenger seat. She hugs Kol and Rebekah, and thanks them and tells them she'll see them soon. They smile, and Rebekah tells Elena to take care of herself, and Elena tells her she will.

* * *

Plane rides have changed since she's been in a coma, but she talks and talks until her throat goes dry, it's so surreal to see more than one person at once. She's not completely okay, but she knows that life has to go on, and that it might be okay someday. She notes the disapproving looks on faces she's never seen before she she lands and Caroline almost tackles her. They're a mess, but they're a mess together and that's what makes them okay. When Elena has a slightly cracked rib, Elijah gently pulls them apart and his brother takes Elena's place and begins to comfort her.

Elena stays close to Elijah, Jeremy notices. Not that he's surprised, but he's surprised how translucent their feelings for each other are.

"We are not here for a fight. We are here to celebrate the life of Bonnie Bennett." Elijah reminds the witches watching their group stare too long for his liking.

"We know that." One of them says.

"Good." Elijah says as he opens a car door for Elena and Jeremy.


	80. Chapter 80

AN: Four more chapters at most left here.

* * *

Caroline has reservations for everyone at a hotel a few blocks away from Bonnie's house. Elijah and Elena have a room together, Jeremy and Matt are sharing a room, Klaus and Caroline, and Freya and Alaric already have rooms to themselves. Elijah tells her that he'll be putting up their things if she needs anything. She must be tired of just seeing him, and she deserves time with her loved ones. She ends up in a room with Matt, Jeremy and Alaric. She clings to all of them for long hugs. Matt is so old she can't believe it. He has wrinkles and gray hair, and it hurts her heart. A long time ago, she thought she wanted to marry him and watch that process happen to both of them.

They talk and talk and talk, and they talk about Bonnie.

"The wake is tomorrow night." Matt tells them and a few tears leak out of Elena's eyes. It's all so strange, and it feels wrong. Bonnie should still be alive and breathing. Jeremy just puts his arm around her.

Elena makes Matt promise, through her teary eyes, that he can't die. He won't die, at least not for a long time. Matt nods.

"I'll try to avoid death." He jokes dryly and she laughs through her tears.

They spend a few hours talking, Jeremy discovers as he looks at his watch. Alaric gives her Caroline and Klaus's room number when she asks for it.

It was okay when she was with the guys. It was. But the slow, human pace of a walk she's doing makes her feel cold and lonely to her bones. She can't reach the room quickly enough it seems, and she ends up running. Klaus opens the door and takes in her appearance for half a second before admitting her into the room. Elena clings to Caroline who's crying on the bed. Elena steps on a few tissues that missed the trash can, but she's not in any position to judge.

She took Klaus's position in comforting Caroline and if she wants Elena in his stead, he accepts that. With her free arm that's not attached to Elena, she pats the bed and he takes his position again. He and Elena both have their arms around Caroline, and there is too much between them to necessarily forgive each other at the moment, but it's not for them. It's for the blonde in the middle who loves them both very much. They mourn, and Klaus just supports both of them. Elena doesn't leave until Caroline falls asleep, and she helps Klaus tuck Caroline in.

"Thank you." He says in a low voice. Elena nods.

"Of course. Goodnight, Klaus." She says quietly before opening the door.

"Goodnight, Elena." He says and she leaves for her own room.

He pulls her into a hug when he sees the tears that left their legacy on her cheeks, and she leans into him.

"This feels like a dream. But you're familiar." She says and he nods. She talks and he listens, he worries about Matt and Jeremy, and Damon and Alaric, how she held Caroline with Klaus, and how she wants to do something.

"Let's get something to eat and see what this town has to offer." Elijah offers and she offers a relieved smile. She can't be alone, that sounds terrifying and like the empty, lonely gaps in her mind. She might not be ready to be alone for a long time, she thinks as Elijah reminds her to wear a jacket. She cleans the tears off her cheeks and takes a deep breath before they leave their hotel room.

The night is dark, and her hand finds Elijah's as they walk. His thumb rubs against the back of her hand reassuringly and they find a bright diner to eat at. She orders more than she would have when she was human, but she missed food, and she almost smiles when a french fry burns her throat. They eat, and and she thought she could keep the words in. But then her ordered them ice cream, and she takes the first spoonful of her chocolate ice cream.

"I have something to tell you." She says. He reminds her that she can tell him anything, and so she tells him that she should have said it a long time ago, and this wasn't her first choice in location to do this.

"I love you and I am in love with you." She says and he opens his mouth.

"I am in love with you too." He says and she moves from her side of the booth to his and kisses him.

He tastes like the raspberry ice cream he ordered, and he feels familiar as she moves her arms around his neck. Kissing ELijah feels like relief and the want to keep kissing him burns through her like the fastest fire she's ever known. He presses a peck to her lips before letting go, and she senses a reason for separating, so she moves back.

"I think we should finish our ice cream before it melts and the diner closes." He says. They have twenty minutes and neither of them want to impose on the diner.

"How was your ice cream?" He inquires.

 _Your lips taste better,_ she wants to say.

"It was good. Ice cream tastes best when I have it with you." She admits and he tells her he was thinking the same thing.

"Where do we go from here?" She asks.

"We go to the wake tomorrow and the funeral the day after that. After we're done here, we can go anywhere you want." He says and his answer gets him a wide smile.

She doesn't press for more and neither does he, she doesn't want him to think she's using him to forget her grief. They watch two movies before he realizes she doesn't want to sleep.

"Elena." He murmurs.

"I can help you sleep. I'll enter your mind as soon as you fall asleep." He promises.

"Do you promise to take me with you when you leave?" She asks.

"I will take you with me." He promises and it's only with that promise that she starts to get ready for bed.

She panics for a moment when she sees her mind palace, she was stuck there for so long, she doesn't want to return. She closes her eyes and she feels a gentle hand tucking her hair behind her ear.

"Let's dream of something happy." She says.

* * *

The wake is full of people, and she told everyone before they left for it, she's with Elijah. Sure they really haven't had a first date, but she's loved him longer than she had been human, she almost can't remember what it was like to not love him. They're all wrecks in some way, and Elijah holds her hand when she asks him to, but she walks to say her last words to Bonnie alone. She can't use Elijah like a crutch because she knows it's not fair to either of them. She watches everyone make their way to Bonnie, and she sees Caroline with wet cheeks. There's a delicate silver chain visible through her fingers and she sees Caroline fasten it on Bonnie's wrist. Their friendship bracelets that Bonnie had bought when they were in middle school. Caroline had them charmed to last much longer than intended, and Elena remembers that hers is in her luggage.

The coven is always there, so Elena never has a moment truly alone with Bonnie, and judging by the looks they give her, they knew the spell used the last of her energy. They blame her for Bonnie's death. If she hadn't used that spell, she might have stayed in the land of the living. She had no idea Bonnie was going to do that and quite honestly she doesn't feel too horrible about that part. Bonnie always did what she wanted. She takes a deep breath and tells Bonnie that she misses her.

"It feels so weird to be here when you aren't." She admits. A few tears escape and she is glad that her makeup is waterproof. Caroline and Rebekah know her well.

* * *

They all go out for dinner in their group, and they celebrate Bonnie's life. They all share funny stories and good times, the way they want to remember her. They talk about their lives and problems, and Elena realizes that the vampires look aged to the humans in the town. She'll never see any of them with wrinkles, she realizes. Elijah's always going to look that perfect, and she and Caroline will always look how they did before they hit their twenties. She tries not to think about it too much. She squeezes Elijah's hand under the table and he squeezes her hand back reassuringly.

This is healing, she thinks as she looks around the table. She feels like waking up with Bonnie dead has left her with an ugly, empty and gaping hole in her. The edges of it are starting to heal up a little. It's not going to be over in a week. It's going to take time, she thinks.

They stay at the restaurant until Matt complains that unlike the rest of them, he actually looks and feels old, and he goes to bed at eight o'clock sharp. Jeremy laughs, but the rest of their laughs are a little uncomfortable. They all part ways after paying the check and she tells the table that she's going for a walk. Alone.

* * *

Nature isn't something she could have replicated in her mind, she soaks it up, all of it. From the imperfect flowers, grass bending under her feet, squirrels and bunnies to the trees younger than her, it's breathtaking. It's all so beautiful that she doesn't feel lonely. It's a good place to think, and for the first time since she's been awake, she understands the feeling of wanting solitude. She has time to think about everything, all of the possibilities and all of the things she needs to think through or mourn.

She thinks about growing old. She and Elijah will never see each other age physically. They'll never have that. Part of Elena wonders what it would have been like to fall in love with Elijah if they were both human. They could have had kids, gotten married. She'd see him get wrinkles and laughter lines and maybe gray hair. She'd still find him attractive anyway, she knows. She mourns for that too as she walks. She'll never become a grandma who spoils her grandchildren, she'll never get to drag Elijah to a class reunion or do date nights. She mourns for the possibilities and the way things turned out, but when she finds someone walking a stone's throw away, she turns around.

One of the perks of being a vampire is knowing that she can take almost anyone down. Older vampires may have speed, but she has self defense training from the Originals.

She wipes her teary eyes and gets ready for the person who's following her.

Elijah.

"How long have you been there?" She asks.

"Just a few seconds." He promises and she nods.

"I just needed some time to think." She says and he tells her that she's been walking for over four hours.

She tells him she just needs a few more minutes and that she'll see him back in their room. He nods, and walks closer. He pulls her close for a moment and presses his lips against her forehead.

"Be careful." He murmurs. She resists the urge to make a joke, he seems solemn. That's probably what he thinks she needs, and he won't know differently until she tells him. She tells him that if she doesn't return in twenty minutes, he can come get her again. He nods and disappears.

* * *

She walks and walks, and remembers that the dress she's wearing is hers technically. She sits against a tree, and Elijah finds her sitting there.

"Come sit with me?" She requests and he sits next to her. She tells him all of it, and he apologizes that he can't give her any of it. He wants to. He wants to tell her Bonnie is alive and that Matt and her brother don't have expiration dates, he wants to tell her they can grow old together. He wants to do everything.

"In another life, perhaps we'll do those things." A different universe, a different world, a different timeline.

"I think you would have liked me as a human." He tells her and she smiles ruefully.

"I like you now. I'd like you in any universe, I think." Any scenario, any order of events, she can't imagine a universe where she doesn't care for Elijah in some capacity. His lips quirk into a grin at that but his expression turns heavy and serious.

"We should return to the hotel and continue this there. I'm sure the others are worried."

She lets him help her up and they brush the dirt off of their clothes and walk back.

Elena feels lighter.


	81. It's Not A Date

She's up before he is, another night in her head felt familiar in a good way. It takes him a moment to notice that she's not next to him when he wakes up. His hand searches the cold side of the bed for a moment before he opens his eyes. Elena's brushing her hair, and he gives her a sleepy smile before he commits to waking up fully.

"Good morning." He says. It's not going to be a completely good day, but there will be good moments.

"The funeral's today." She reminds him and he nods.

"It's so weird to do this. I went decades without being able to tell how I looked." She tells him as she checks her lipstick. She sees him head to the bathroom as she thinks about the shoes Rebekah packed.

They both hear her stomach growl and she frowns for a moment.

"You need to eat, Elena." He reminds her gently.

"I'll see what they have for breakfast." She tells him and he shakes his head.

"You need blood." He corrects. Her smile disappears.

"I'm not sure I can do that alone." She admits. She only had a year or two to be a vampire before this happened, and she needs someone to make sure she doesn't drain someone.

"Klaus packed blood bags." He tells her and she nods.

"I'll go see Klaus and Caroline then." She understands what he doesn't say, feeding in a town with a large witch population is not a good idea.

* * *

She's surprised when Elena knocks on their door alone, and Klaus asks where Elijah is.

"He's taking a shower and I need breakfast." She tells them simply as she walks in.

"How are you doing with the bloodlust and food in general?" Caroline asks and Elena waves it off.

She doesn't really have a problem with it, but Elijah had to remind her to eat. Klaus and Caroline frown at that, but Klaus is the first one to move and give her a blood bag.

It's just enough of a difference to throw her off, just like everything else it seems. The packaging changed, just like everything else.

"Here's how you drink from it." Klaus says and demonstrates it to her. She thanks him before she starts.

* * *

Elijah knocks on the door as Elena is about to leave.

"The funeral's going to start soon." Caroline says as she puts in her earrings.

Elijah acknowledges that and Elena walks out of the room before Klaus does. Klaus locks the door as they make their way to remind their friends.

* * *

Her hand finds Elijah's as they walk and when they're in the backseat, she smells the familiar scent of his cologne.

"It's going to be okay." Caroline says as her voice hints at shaking.

Klaus holds one of her hands tightly and doesn't say anything else. She squeezes his hand tightly and he squeezes her hand back gently. The amount of force she's using doesn't hurt him. Not that he'd tell her that her hand hurt him even if she did.

* * *

Caroline did a lovely job with Freya and the other witches, and she keeps her composure as she walks. Elena takes his arm, he lets her. She can have anything she wants from him. She already has his heart, she might as well take everything else.

* * *

It's warm in the sun as people begin to speak but Elena just feels cold. Bonnie had wanted an outdoor funeral, had insisted upon it despite Caroline's best arguments.

They listen, and Elijah supplies her with tissues as the tears begin to run, she flexes her fingers a few times as a reminder that Elijah's there. She can't imagine going alone, funerals have always been hard for her. The feeling that seeps into her bones will come, the cold loneliness always sneaks in somehow. Words are spoken, and Elena tries to pay attention to them but she tunes more than one speaker out on accident.

Caroline speaks, and Elena focuses on her breathing. Then everyone moves and Bonnie's coffin is lowered into the ground. Elena stands there alone, watching as others move away, they do have other things to do.

No one else's life stopped because someone died. She closes her eyes.

"Goodbye Bonnie. I'll miss you." She whispers, and for a moment, she's sure Bonnie's there, she feels completely warm for a moment. She opens her eyes to see that it's just the sun, and Elijah looks at her with blatant concern.

"The others are going to a restaurant." He says and she wonders how long she stood alone, waiting and how long he waited for her.

"I'm not hungry." She says. It looks like something pulled at the corner of his mouth when she looks at his face, and he tells her that he knows.

They go anyway.

* * *

Lunch is just talking and Elena eats for appearances, really she feels like the hole Bonnie left is bleeding, but it's starting to heal over again. It's going to take time, Elijah whispers as he leans close to her. She appreciates the reminder.

Caroline tells everyone that they should meet again soon, the table is filled with familiar faces that haven't seen each other in years.

They manage to come to an agreement to meet again in New Orleans in a month. Elijah looks at her and she nods. She wants to go, needs to leave.

Elijah and Elena say their goodbyes at lunch, and Caroline looks confused but doesn't leave the table.

* * *

She convinces him that they should drive to Mystic Falls before the next morning. She leaves notes for everyone, apologizing and explaining her quick exit.

She's got something to do.

It's not a date, she jokes as he walks with her, into the ice cream place.

"Of course not." He replies and she feels a thousand times lighter than she did while they were mourning. A few hours of thought had helped her.

They stare at the flavors a little too long and the people working there have no idea, they just think they're just an old couple that loves ice cream.

They're partially right, Elena thinks.


	82. I can write accurate grief now

AN: My best friend was hit by a drunk driver and died a week later from injuries from the collision. I just managed to sit down and write this chapter, but it might be a week or so before I update this again.

Dedicated to Caitlin.

* * *

It seems like they waited forever just to be here, just to have this moment. She smiles at him through shiny eyes and he looks concerned. He's about to ask, she knows so she just tells him.

It feels so unreal to be there, in the ice cream shop with technology she's never seen. So much time has passed but if she closes her eyes she could pretend it was decades ago. She almost didn't think they'd ever get to this, or that they'd be a couple so quickly after she woke up. The happiness is tinged with guilt.

"Bonnie loved you. She knows you loved her, and it's okay to grieve, but she wanted you to be happy." Elijah murmurs.

"It feels so weird to be so happy and so sad at the same time. She's not in pain and she lived a full life, and you love me so I'm happy. But she's also gone and it feels wrong to be so happy while she's not here." Elena admits, her spoon pushing around her raspberry cheesecake ice cream. They've waited so long to be here in this place, doing this and she can't help but feel like she's ruining it.

"No one grieves in the exact same way. You and Caroline are very similar and you both love Bonnie. She's still going to grieve in a different manner than you and it doesn't make it wrong or disrespectful. She told you she wanted you to be happy, and you are not forgetting her." Elijah begins.

"Bonnie will be someone you think about for a very long time. It's okay to be happy in times of grief, even just a little bit. Bonnie admitted to Matt that she felt guilty for feeling happy while you were in a coma. Even if she could be mad at you for being happy, she would have understood. You can feel however you want to, but I do not think Bonnie would ever hate you or disprove of you being happy from wherever she is-wherever we go after this life ends." Elijah says quietly and she nods as a tear escapes.

"I keep thinking I'm almost fine but there are moments that remind me I won't be. I keep wanting to tell her about things and then I remember she isn't here and I feel like I have to start all over again. I'm going to grieve for a very long time." She tells him, as she looks at his melting ice cream.

"That's completely acceptable and don't let anyone else tell you otherwise. There is no set time frame to feel okay about losing a loved one. Sometimes it never feels okay. There are some losses that always hurt and that's just the way it is. Some deaths are easier to grieve through than others. I will be here for whatever you need, Elena. Don't rush yourself." He says, his hand finding hers.

A few tears escape, and she asks if she can talk about Bonnie. She knows he didn't like Bonnie like he liked her other loved ones, but she thinks talking to someone who didn't know her well might help.

She begins with when they first met, around spoonfuls of melting ice cream. He listens and eats his own lemon ice cream. They get more ice cream when they finish, and Elena tells him about the time they all dared each other to eat flowers. She wants to celebrate Bonnie's life, but she's still trying to wrap her head around the fact that she'll have forever while Bonnie had a few decades. She talks and talks and talks until she can't talk anymore and the people working disappears, fresh faces appear without her notice.

"I feel like my eyes are leaky faucets. Every time I think I'm over crying, I start crying again. I feel like I should be past this. " She confesses and he nods.

"Grief is a complicated maze. It's only been a few days, you have more than that to grieve. Some people slowly grieve over years. Some people grieve intensely for a short period and then they feel better about it. Some are a mix of both. It doesn't matter how others grieve but how you do." Elijah sounds like one of the books her mother had given her on grief when her grandparents died and she tells him that.

He merely raises an eyebrow and she feels a laugh escape.

"I shouldn't be laughing." Elena schools her face quickly and he opens his mouth to tell her it's okay.

"It felt wrong. I should be sobbing. I should feel worse." She says and he sees that she has a long way to go with her grief. He knows she's not using him, but he does offer himself in any way she needs him. A shoulder to cry on, someone to listen, someone to tell a bad joke, a reminder to eat, anything she needs.

Grief is not beautiful, it's just a mess. Elena knows better than most. They should check into a hotel, but she asks him to drive her to the Mystic Falls cemetery. He doesn't ask questions, just drives and leaves Elena to her thoughts.

* * *

"I'd like for you to come with me." She says but it's his choice. He gets out of the car at the same time she does. There are so many new graves that she's almost startled, but he watches her close her eyes and walk to where her parents are buried.

She knows it's odd, but she's always needed a place to talk to the people she's lost. She talks to them and he doesn't listen, but she introduces him. Elena likes to think that wherever they are, her parents can hear her talk to them.

"I wish you could have met my parents. I wish I had a longer time with them. I think they would have liked you." She says tearfully and he nods. Despite the fact that her parents were on the Council and disliked vampires, he's sure they would have gotten along swimmingly. He doesn't make a joke like he usually would and she knows that they wouldn't have if they knew he was a centuries old vampire who was interested in her. If they were both human, her parents would have loved him. If they were human, they would have already been married. If Bonnie was human, they would have had their entire lives to spend together. She doesn't dwell on that thought. She can take a lot of pain, physical and emotional, but that hurts too much. She sits by Jenna's grave and begins speaking, and he carefully sits next to her as she does.

* * *

"Where do you think they are?" She asks and he shrugs as he pulls back their comforter.

"Are you worried about them at all?" Caroline asks and he shakes his head.

"Why not?" She wonders. She's worried about them since they left while she mourned for Bonnie. He turns off the light that they don't need.

"One, Elijah will never let anything happen to her. Two, Elena might need her own time and space to grieve. Three, you worry enough for the both of us, love." Klaus murmurs before he presses a kiss to her exposed shoulder.

"I feel like a part of me died with her. I mean, I knew it was coming. We'll all die someday, I just thought we'd have longer with Bonnie." Caroline admits as tears form in her eyes.

"Everyone thinks they have longer than they do." Klaus whispers sagely and a few tears escape her eyes. She wipes them away as more race down her cheeks. She lets Klaus pull her into his arms, and neither of them say anything as her body shakes with the force of her sobbing.


	83. Chapter 83

AN: I have a rough estimate of how many chapters are left, but this won't go over 100 chapters. Dedicated to Caitlin.

* * *

"I feel like I'm always going to miss her. I don't think I'll ever "get over" this. I don't want to "get over" Bonnie." Elena confesses as he sits next to her on the couch of the recently renovated Gilbert house.

"You might not. You might miss her every day for the rest of your life and you might feel exactly how you do now. You might not." He says carefully, there are people he thinks of everyday. Some of them still hurt, some of them are still painful. There are deaths he's made peace with and there are others he will always feel at war with. It's just part of living.

"How do I go through this? How do you keep living? I feel like my life has been a funeral procession since day one. I don't want to lose Jeremy, I don't want to lose Matt, or you, or Caroline or anyone. I want Bonnie." She says and he nods as tears gather in her eyes. She's already lost so many people, she doesn't want to lose anyone else. She's mourned everyone who she's lost but Bonnie is different. Losing Bonnie is like losing Caroline, it's like losing part of herself. Elena mourns the lost potential and the should haves, the plans they made when they were giggling too hard at sleepovers and the world was still completely bright.

"You go through it one day at a time. Everyone goes through it differently." He says.

"I don't even know what day it is." Tears escape and she's tired of crying but she also feels like she hasn't cried enough. Bonnie deserves extensive mourning, she deserves so much better. She curls into herself, and he doesn't touch her, but he murmurs that it's Tuesday. That's a start, she thinks distantly, but then she remembers Bonnie will never smile at her again. She'll never get to watch another movie with her or talk to her. Elena implodes a little. It's been too long since she's been able to feel this much, to mourn properly.

* * *

It's not an easy process, and Elena grieves fully. It's the first significant loss she's been awake for in decades. They're open and honest with each other, he tells her of his most significant loss. She's never guessed at his past, but he tells her his secrets as she leans against him.

They travel, and the gaping hole gets a little smaller with each day, but Elena still feels the loss. There are things to live for, and Elijah shows her new things and places every day.

* * *

"We're supposed to be in New Orleans in three days." Elijah says one day, and she looks away from the historical site to ask when they need to return.

"Knowing Caroline, we should probably leave today or tomorrow." He admits and she nods.

"I just want another hour before we have to think about it." Elena says and he agrees to it. Neither of them are quite ready to leave this yet.

* * *

"I'm sure. I just called him. He and Elena will be leaving in an hour." Klaus defends his older brother.

"Good. I'm just worried." Caroline admits as he watches her pace around their room.

"Stay in that pose." He requests as he begins to sketch her again. She stays still, but they continue to discuss everything as he carefully shades the drawing. It's going to be okay, Klaus knows. He just has to convince Caroline of that.


	84. Go together or we don't go down at all

AN: This is the last chapter of this fic, I'm going to miss it too. This fic has been an emotional rollercoaster, and what it has taught me is that I should write more Klaroline next to Elejah because it's fun. Shout out to Siberia21 who let me use her as my sounding board, Rising Phoenix-82 who wanted this fic I hope you liked it, ahyeon, and everyone else who reviewed this story and everyone who read this story.

I love you all so much, I hope you all are doing well, I can't tell you how much I appreciate you guys! Anyway, the last chapter!

* * *

Jeremy's the first one she sees as Elijah parks. She still forgets about vampire speed and in a second she's hugging her little brother who looks so much older.

"I love you, Jer." She says, and looks around the house. There's Alaric, Caroline, Jeremy, Matt, Klaus, Rebekah, Kol, Freya and Elijah's just entered the room. She moves from person to person, she loves these people, even Klaus. Even Klaus, they all matter, they're all so important to her.

Caroline wraps her arms around her and keeps her the longest, but she is surprised when Elena hugs the hybrid next to her.

"Thank you." Elena says so only he can Caroline can hear, and he doesn't question it.

This is not going to be an easy time, she is filled with grief and cautious joy and Matt promises to be around for a few more years, and Jeremy begins to speak.

"If I wanted to become a vampire, would one of your turn me?" He's learned that he still has a lot to do, he has a lot to show Elena, more art to do, there's so much more of the world to see and he can't leave his older sister alone so soon. Elena hugs him tightly and he coughs. Pain sparks in his torso, and he needs Elena to stop with the death hug.

"I'm not a vampire yet, Lena, loosen your grip." Jeremy says and the others laugh. Elena gives him a watery grin and gives a looser hug, she's not losing anyone else, at least not for a while.

"I'm sorry, I just-" Elena can't finish her sentence and Jeremy understands. She can't think of losing anyone else, especially not after Bonnie. Jeremy understands, they lost the same people, grieved differently and they were each other's anchors through grief for a long time. Thank god she's not losing Jeremy. She can't imagine living forever without her little brother.

"If Ric can do it, so can I." Jeremy says and Alaric fakes offense for a moment, his reaction gets a few laughs.

"I want to live completely, see the world and create things everyone will see, maybe fall in love. My time isn't over." Jeremy explains and they all understand with a sudden clarity that soon Matt will not be with them for these get togethers they have so rarely. The Mikaelsons look to each other, and Alaric grins at Jeremy.

"It's a hell of a ride in the beginning." He says and Jeremy grins.

"Well it's a good thing I'm not doing it alone." Jeremy says and the vampires smile because it's a nice thought but it isn't a walk through the park. Elena squeezes Elijah's hand and he squeezes her hand back, reassuringly. They have each other and their families, that's more than most people can say or hope for.

"Klaus is quite the artist, I bet you could both learn something from each other." Caroline says and Jeremy looks at Klaus for a long moment, he has a long list of sins against everyone in the room, but they've all committed crimes against each other, broken each other's hearts and fought.

"I'm up for it if you are." It's the first time in decades he's spoken to Klaus directly.

"I am." Klaus confirms unnecessarily, Caroline would probably talk him into it regardless. He'd do anything for Caroline and she'd do anything for him, it's how they work by now. He looks at her with love filled eyes before the group breaks off into different conversations.

Freya and Elena want to hear about Matt's human life, Jeremy and Klaus have disappeared to his studio, Elijah is sitting with Alaric and Caroline asking questions about his life, how it was to teach and how Damon is doing. Rebekah and Kol observe the others around them and make bets. It's not completely light hearted, there's still heaviness in the air, the future, regret and grief are still there but they don't take control of everything.

They're all healing from different things, it's going to take time and each other to get through it. For the first time in a while, Elena is looking forward to the future.

She isn't the only one.

* * *

finis


End file.
